Tears on a Sketchpad
by nanirain
Summary: [IK]Gothy outcast and cheery artist don’t mix. They just don’t. I heard that guy got shot a year ago. Yeah, that's right: shot. The new girl? She an amazing artist. And always looking on the bright side. She and Inuyasha? It could never happen. Right?
1. Chains and Spikes

**A/N**: I wrote this in five minutes after pulling an all-nighter. I know, I know, the last thing I need right now is another story. But I can't help it. I couldn't sleep until I got the idea out of my head…. Damn it.

**Disclaimer**: Currently no, I don't own any of the characters. And I am fully prepared to print this out and wave it in the face of whoever decides to try and arrest me. So all those who come to my house with handcuffs and flashlights beware: I am prepared for some frantic waving! (Inspired by the Teen Titan quote: "Evil beware… we _have_ waffles." – Raven) No I don't own that either.

Chapter One: Chains and Spikes 

Chains and spikes. That's all there was to Inuyasha and his black, loose fitting cargo pants. Lots of chains and lots of spikes. He had so many, in fact, that he jingled when he walked. It would have been funny. It would have been hilarious… if he weren't so damn scary. His combat boots, rumored to have been steel-toed and stained with blood, were heavy and black, and they pounded on the sidewalk or on the high school hallways wherever he went, his chains all the while jingling. His wife beater was black, or a dark charcoal gray. Always. Even before the shooting. Everyday of every week of the school year Inuyasha Hanyouri was in black or gray and his face was always downcast. Always. And of course there were the chains. You could never forget the chains. People would hear them jangling together in the hallway and would hit the lockers or the walls as fast as they could because they were too afraid to get in his way. Even the jocks, who made it a habit of picking on the gothy losers made way for Inuyasha Hanyouri. You didn't get in his way. It was just a bad idea.

"Whose that?"

"_That_?"

"Yeah, the silver haired guy."

"… You're new here, aren't you?"

"Yeah. I just transferred… why?"

"That's Hanyouri, Inuyasha. Stay away from him."

"Why?"

"He's dangerous… he's an outcast. He likes it that way. He never lets anyone get close to him."

"Dangerous?"

"Yeah… trust me, you just want to stay away from him."

And people did stay away from him. They stayed away mainly for four definite reasons. Number One: The fangs. They fangs freaked people out. All Inuyasha need do was flash them at somebody and there were gone. Far away gone. Reason Number Two: The talons. After he had given a demonstration of the sharpness of his talons with his locker door, people tended to stay away from them. Mostly he kept his hands buried in his pockets. When he took them out though, people flinched. Big time. Reason Number Three: The Eyes. The sharp golden eyes. Inuyasha's glares were enough to kill. He sent the wrestlers ducking for cover. Once, if I recall correctly, Jimmy Davidson even tried to jam his incredibly bulky body into his own locker, needless to say he failed miserably. And Reason Number Four: The rumors.

"You see that guy who just walked past? Yeah that one. That's Hanyouri. You can tell by the hair. I heard he got shot a year ago. Yeah, that's right. Shot. You remember Mikoimi, Kikyo?"

"You mean the girl who committed suicide last year?"

"Yeah that one. She and Inuyasha used to be like this. Tight, man. They were together… like always. Then last year she just lost it. She totally lost it, man. She got a gun and she shot him in the park during a date. She just pulled out a gun and BAM! Puts a bullet into his heart… that was just before she blew her brains out right in front of him. She put the gun in her mouth and pulled while he was still bleeding and on the ground. He's still got the scar, man. I've seen it in the locker room. Lots of people have. Ever since then he hasn't been the same. Think it won't be long till he does himself in too."

"Jesus…"

"Yeah. I know. Listen, you'd better look out for him, man. You can never tell exactly when it is that someone's gonna snap."

And when it wasn't that, it was always something else.

"Did you hear about what happened last month at the park?"

"No. What happened?"

"It was Hanyouri. He grabbed a couple of kids when their mother was out buying ice cream and cut these long gashes into their arms with his claws."

"Oh my God that's horrible!"

"Yeah, I know. Apparently he did it because they were coloring over the bloodstains with chalk."

"The bloodstains?"

"Yeah… his and Kikyo's. He walks in the park every night. That' what Tyler says anyway."

"What a sicko."

"Seriously…"

"I know."

….

That's Hanyouri Inuyasha. You want to stay away from him.

**A/N**: First Chapter's short I know, but that's often how it is with my stories. First chapter is short, the rest of them somehow grow to incredible lengths… plus its an all-nighter. I'm exhausted. Please review, it would make me happy. If I get more than five the second chapter will be up very soon. Very soon indeed.


	2. Drawing Faces

A/N: Ok so I lied, the second chapter isn't that long. In fact its pitifully short I'll be the first one to admit. I'm not sure exactly what happened. I have what would have been the rest of the story written, but for some reason it didn't seem to attach well with the rest of it. I guess it'll be chapter three. This is sort of just Kagome's introduction to the story. The italics are sort of her thoughts, though she's not thinking them at the time. And the story won't be told in her point of view. But just pretend like she's narrating for a while.

Disclaimer: None of it is mine. Except the plot. That one belongs to me. All the rest goes to someone else unfortunately. Oh well.

Chapter Two: Drawing Faces 

_I could probably spend an entire day sitting alone in my room, just drawing faces._

The pencil shaded carefully, the gentle curves of cheekbones… the smooth shading of an upper lip.

_Faces are what make a drawing real… _

And moving gradually down the tender locks of spiraling hair that fell lightly across the nose and drifted onto the small, rounding shoulder, pale.

_Especially the eyes. Her eyes set the mood of the picture._

Soft, gentle eyes… shaded darker around the rim and the pupil than in the actual irises themselves.

_If you draw a face right, eyes and all, you can see the person you've drawn looking out at you from inside the picture._

Delicate and mysterious… as if holding away some sort of secret.

_That's the hard part about drawing faces._

The pencil tip snapped, as a little freckle was pressed into the corner of the eye by the artist's hand.

_You see, anyone can draw or paint someone's face on a piece of paper._

Soft breath blew away the stray speckles of pencil lead.

_A three year old could do that. _

The white page was shaken gently, to rid the gray eraser shillings from the surface.

_But you have to do it right, you have to **really** do it **right**, to have the face be **living **somewhere inside the paper. To see the face, and be able to tell what's inside… beneath the eyes. _

The long fingered hand poised itself in the sketchbook paper again, ever careful not to smudge the lines with a careless gesture.

_If its all done right, you should be able to look at the picture and feel embarrassed._

The final touches were added to the scales to make them shine in watery beams of sunlight.

_Or shy or flirtatious or even afraid… As long as you feel **something.** _

The artist sat up on her bed and studied the paper with careful, measuring blue eyes.

_You should be able to feel because you're looking at living being, someone captured in pencil led and softly molded sketch paper. _

They moved slowly up and down every shadow, every whiteness.

_You should feel like you're meeting someone for the first time._

The angles… the face…_ That's how it should be. The face… the eyes… they should all draw you in, just like a real person would. You should have to wonder what its, exactly, that she's thinking, when she's stuck down there in that lonely sketch pad._

Fingertips traced over secretive, carefully shaded eyes…_ just like you do with a normal person who you meet on the street. Because you can't really **know** a person until you know their face… its like, a real face is never just blank… it always showing you something from the inside. You just have to know how to look at it._

A small smile played over the artist's lips…_For me, that's what artistry is really about…_

"Kagome!"

The girl blinked and jerked, her own little world shattered by her mother's call. Instinctively she lifted her head to look at the alarm clock. Seven twenty three… great. "I'm coming, Mama!"

_My name is Kagome Higurashi._

"Honey, you're going to be late!"

"_Mama_! I _know_!"

_And right now, I'm late for my first day at a new school._

**Regarding the Reviews:**

**Thank you so much, all, for the amazing amount of support you showed me on this fic. I was surprised how much feedback I got on it. Anyway the thing I'd like to point out is that firstly rumors are rumors. Who knows if you can trust them or not? You'll have to read the story to find out more about Inuyasha. Anyway I personally hate them (shout out to Kiwi "I totally agree… and you're on the right track) so if you like gossipers, beware, they're not going to be spoken of that fondly. (and to dadsnavygirl1831: "gothy losers" wasn't something from my opinion, it was me trying to mimic what a jock would say about a goth. I don't have any objections to them (so no more slapping please TT) **

**Thank you for reviewing, all of you! It really means a lot to me! And if any of you have questions that you really, really want answered I'll do my best if you email me. **


	3. Completely Clueless

Chapter Three: The Ride to School 

**A/N: Ok so everybody has been telling me how much they love the story. Thanks so much! Unfortunately this chapter sucks. :( sorry. I can't help it. It just won't come out right. But the next one will be better and not as hard to write. Get ready for the Inu/Kag meeting. Anyway The problem is, I won't be able to keep it so "deep" all the time, otherwise it will get pretty heavy and I might not be able to handle it. So this will be one of the lighter chapters(which is probably while its so bad).But don't worry, the whole "depth" thing will be a recurring theme in chapters to come. Thanks again so much for the positive/helpful/encouraging feedback! That's what keeps me going! Oh and by the way, a lot of people asked me if the last chapter was a personal belief about drawing. Believe it or not, I'm not really an artist… strangely enough… that stuff just kind of tends to drop into my head when I write. If anything I'm a writer, not an artist. I do draw sometimes, but they're mostly anime fanart and I usually need something to look at for it to be decent. So basically, no, the last chapter is not based on a personal belief of mine, its justsomething for Kagome and Kagome alone. Thanks for all the compliments though! It's nice to know you guys care!**

**Disclaimer: The story plot is mine. The characters are not… yeah I know… it sucks for me too…:(**

"Kagome! What were you _doing_?" Mrs. Higurashi asked her daughter as the sixteen year old girl flew down the stairs, brushing her dark storm-cloud colored hair out of her pale blue eyes, only to have it fall back into place. Her mother didn't notice that her daughter's fingertips were gray and smudged with pencil lead.

Kagome smiled secretively at her mother, not bothering to hide that she was hiding something. "Nothing."

Her mother rolled her eyes, "Not the 'nothing' phase again…" she muttered to herself before turning around to fetch a scrunchie for her daughter.

"I think I'll just leave it down, today." Kagome said hastily as she checked her reflection in the mirror, brushing off a bit of dust on her low-rise jeans and tugging on the "belt" hanging around her hips, which was really a string of silvery beads that draped in an uneven shape over her right hip and glimmered when she walked. She gave her mother a quick kiss on the cheek before lunging for the door, pulling on a black corduroy jacket with bellbottom sleeves over her strawberry-pink cami as she went. "Alright I'm off!" She hollered over her shoulder as she threw open the sliding door and started down the stairs, a key chain of various car keys hanging jingled from around her thumb as she waved.

"Kagome!" Her mother called after her daughter, her voice exasperated. "Your _shoes_!"

The girl's figure halted jerkily on the second to last step and in an instant had whipped around and scrambled back up the stairs. Gracefully she leapt through the doorframe and grabbed a pair of sandals resting up against the wall. She didn't even bother to put them on as she raced back out, her raven hair flying. Instead she held them out with her left hand, her right supporting the messenger bag she had slung sloppily over her shoulder. "Thanks mom!" She yelled quickly. "Wish me luck!"

"Good luck…" her mother said tiredly, wiping her flour-coated hands on her apron. Her soft brown eyes watched with worry as Kagome's dark green car pull out of the driveway and disappeared around the bend, a cloud of earthy red dust billowing up behind the back tires.

"No, Rin… yeah I know. No, I know, I – whoa!" Kagome cut the wheel sharply to the right, narrowly missing a bright red eighteen-wheeler that had somehow managed to get in her way. The driver honked angrily at her as he passed, screaming something along the lines of "Watch it!" But she didn't hear. She was too busy talking to Rin.

"_Kagome?_" Her friend's garbled voice could barely be heard in the sea of static. Kagome sighed, damn Sprint's crappy service. "_What was **that**? Was that a **truck** honking at you?"_ She demanded, sounding somewhat like a worried mother or aunt.

"Yeah, it was, but it's ok. He didn't hit me or anything." Kagome said hurriedly, reaching for a falling pack of cinnamon Altoids as they threatened to wriggle their way off of the dashboard. Why was the ride so bouncy?

"_Oh… that's… um… a … relief… Kagome, what's **that** noise_?"

"What noise?" Kagome asked absently as she popped a cinnamon mint into her mouth, tilting her head onto her shoulder in order to hold the phone in place. Her dark hair fell into her blue eyes again, making it hard of her to see… maybe she should get another haircut soon…

"_Kagome are you driving on the rumble sheet_!" Rin demanded once again, the static doing nothing to drown out the panic in her voice.

"Oh!" Kagome pulled hard to the left, realizing that Rin was right. "Oops." She giggled into the phone. So that was why the road seemed so choppy.

"_Kagome_!" Rin yelled through the speaker. "_Are you **sure** you can talk and drive at the same time?_"

"I'm fine, Rin. So where are you?"

"_I'm… I'm at 45th Cherry Tree Avenue_…" The younger girl responded hesitantly, Kagome could hear the apprehension in her friends' voice. "_But Kagome if you don't want to go out of your way then you don't have to-_"

"Don't you _need_ a ride to school, Rin?" Kagome asked, a small smile tucked into the corner of her mouth. "I mean how do you plan on getting there _without_ me?"

On the other side of the phone Rin frowned and bit her lip, tucking back a piece of hair nervously. "Yeah but Kagome, you're going to-"

"I'll be _fine_, Rin." Kagome assured her friend through the speaker, totally blowing past a stop sign without even realizing it. Luckily there was no one else on the intersection to smash into her tiny green car.

Kagome Higurashi wasn't usually clueless. In fact most of the time she was extremely sensitive and observant to everything around her. But there were certain things in the world that seemed to render her completely clueless to everything around her. One of them was artistry. Painting, drawing, molding, you name it, Kagome Higurashi did it. But as soon as the brush or pencil or whatever it was that she was using hit the canvas or the paper or the clay, she was lost, gone in her own world. Nothing else seemed to exist but her and her art. Unfortunately, the other thing which rendered her perfectly clueless to the rest of the world was driving. And the worst part was that she hadn't even realized it yet.

The distracted girl continued to listen to Rin, all the while watching the butterfly glimmer on the hood of her car. She had painted it on the hood a little over a year ago, using Celtic designs for patterns on the wings. She could still remember the day she painted it as she traced over the glittering blue and purple lines… traces of silver reflected off the morning sun… Oh yeah… she was talking. "Look, Rin, I'll be there in about five minutes to pick you and Sango up, Ok?"

There was an extremely long pause on the other end of the phone. So long, in fact, that for a moment Kagome thought she had lost the connection. "Rin?"

Finally the younger girl's voice came back through the speaker. "Ok…" Her friend's sweet voice replied reluctantly, clearly unsure.

Kagome smiled, shaking her head softly as she pressed the "off" button on her phone and dropped it on the dashboard. Rin and Sango, Kagome's two best friends in the world, had lived together in Tokyo, Japan for their entire lives, and had been happy there. And up until around the seventh grade, so had Kagome. But when her father received a job offer in Okaska, the Higurashi family had left Tokyo behind to go settle out with him for about two years. Kagome had struggled through the eighth grade and freshman year at the local schools in Osaka. And while she had been able to get by on her own, Osaka had never really felt like home to her.

Now that her father would be spending a couple years traveling abroad, her mother, Ms. Higurashi, felt it was right to bring Souta, Kagome, Grandpa and herself back to where they had come from in the first place. Tokyo would always be home to the Higurashi family.

Kagome, for one, was glad to be back. She was comfortable in Tokyo, with her old friends and childhood memories. Sango, Rin and Kagome had practically been inseparable since the third grade. Upon her return, the three friends had spent the entire summer together, their bond quickly reforming as if she had never been away at all. And now that it was time for the new school year to start again, Kagome was more than grateful that she had Rin and Sango to help her through the all too familiar experience of "being the new kid". She knew she could count on them to help her out…

However, despite how much she cared for both her friends, they both seemed to share an inexplicable fear of driving in cars. Usually when they were traveling with her they urged Kagome to take the bus or the subway, or even just walk, as if they were afraid that riding in a car might kill them. Kagome had never been able to come up with an explanation for it, and she probably would never understand it.

"Oops!" Kagome was suddenly cut out of her thoughts as she realized that she had just passed exit seven, which read in big white letters: "45th Cherry Tree Avenue." Instinctively, Kagome pulled a huge U-turn in the middle of a four-way highway, and rocketed up the exit she had missed as she dovetailed out of the U-turn. "Made it," She sighed, resting her head on the steering wheel, only to have to pull violently to the right once she lifted her head to look up at the road again. As it was, when she finally did get to Cherry Tree Avenue, she barely managed to skid to a stop without running over her two best friends who were waiting for her on the sidewalk.

Rin and Sango, who each had grabbed onto each other in a tight embrace for what they had thought were the last moments of their precious lives, hesitantly lifted their heads up to peer at Kagome. Both sighed in relief to find that she had somehow managed to park without squashing, smashing or otherwise permanently damaging any living being or public property… unlike the last time. Kagome herself was sitting with her bright blue eyes pressed tightly shut. Her hands were clenching the steering wheel for all she was worth, her knuckles pressed to painful white-color. When she finally opened them again they watched her expression turn to a cheery grin and a wave, as if nothing had ever happened. The continued to watch, slack-jawed as she got out of the car to hug them both.

"Alright, we're late so let's get going," Kagome said, after they had spent a few seconds talking. Her two friends watched uneasily as she hopped back into the driver's seat, oblivious to the worried looks they were giving her.

"S-Sango? Do you… smell that?" Rin asked her taller friend as they approached the car slowly.

"Yeah," Sango made a face and glanced at Kagome's lightly smoking tires. "It's burnt rubber."

"Maybe you should drive." Rin whispered as she slid into the back seat, Sango taking the front.

"If only I could."

Kagome remained oblivious to her friends' conversation as she began to turn the keys in the ignition. The engine started with a soft roar, the car coming to life gently from beneath her. Then she pressed her foot hard on the gas petal, the dial for the engine power rose to a dangerous level, and the engine roared angrily from beneath the butterfly hood. But nothing happened. Kagome stared, puzzled as she lightly lifted her foot of the accelerator. "Huh…" She said lightly to herself before trying again.

"Ummm, Kagome?"

"Hmm?" Kagome glanced out of the corner of her eye at Rin who had leaned forwards in her seat, her head coming up between Sango's and her own. "You're… you're still in park…"

Kagome blinked and looked at the gear. Sure enough, her brake was still on. "Oh, thanks Rin." She smiled gratefully as she reached forwards and shifted the gear with a slight clicking noise that made Rin's stomach twist in fear.

"Kagome," Sango said, trying to sound casual. "Maybe I should dri-IVE!" Her sentence suddenly escalated to a shout as the car lunched forwards, escalating to 75 MPH in a matter of fifteen seconds.

"Kagome!" Sango shrieked, her hand flying to the window to brace herself. Rin, on the other hand, was now cowering in the back seat, locked into a fetal position, her bag dangling over the edge of the leather upholstery. "The speed limit here is _55_!" Sango shrieked as she blindly clutched at the handle above her head.

"Well we're a little late so I figured I'd speed a little just this once." Kagome said happily as she bumped up over the curve, the result of her taking her eyes off the road to look at Sango.

"Eyes on the road!" Sango yelled, frantically. "Stop sign!" Sango shouted. "Blinker!"

"Don't worry, no one's coming anyway." Kagome said, carefree and oblivious to the amount of danger she was putting herself and her friends in.

"No!" Sango screamed, frantic. "You're going to _hit_ the stop sign!"

"Oh? What?" Kagome said, pulling to the left. The car jolted as it lurched off the curb, making everybody bounce in their seats, with the exception of Rin, who was still curled up in the back.

'_Oh man…_' Rin thought quietly to herself as she curled her body tighter into the fetal position. '_If we ever get out of this alive_' she started her common ritual of praying whenever she was in the car with Kagome behind the wheel. '_I'll never yell at mom again… I'll always clean my room… I'll be more careful with my money… I won't pick on Jaken anymore…_'

"_Kagome_!"

Screech!

"What? I saw it coming."

"You could have _killed _it! You could have killed _us_!"

And so progressed the ride to school that morning.

"Alright!" Kagome said with a small sigh, taking the keys of the ignition as the engine puttered slowly to a stop before abruptly dying, a little stream of steam floating up from under the hood. "So, are you guys impressed or what?"

"Wh-what?" Sango managed to mutter, her face a sickly colored white, her body shoved back into the seat, and hands still clutching at the handle above her head.

"I got us here in no time, flat." Kagome said, as if it should be obvious. "We're not even late!"

"Oh… thanks." Sango said quietly as she pried her fingers from the handle, she winced as they were numb and aching.

"Ok," Kagome said, as she slung her bag over her shoulder. "Let's get going, I don't want to be late on my first… Rin?"

Sango stood shakily on the pavement, grateful to be alive, but barely able to stand. Her legs felt like jell-o and her entire body was weak and shaky.

"Rin?" Kagome opened the door to the back seat and poked her head inside, dark black hair falling over her shoulder. "Rin? What are you _doing_?"

'_I'll never yell again… I'll do community service… I'll give away all my old cloths to the needy… I'll grow my hair and cut it off for 'Locks of Love'… I'll try not to get PMS anymore… I'll stop stealing food from "Feed the Needy" on Christmas… I'll never-'_

"Rin!"

Rin opened one of her hazel-colored eyes carefully, as if dreading to see what it was that was calling to her. Visions of twisted steel and little green cars engulfed in flame rocketing over a cliff… But it was only Kagome. Rin sat up slowly, looking around her to check for any signs of danger or disaster. But there were none. They were merely sitting in the car parking lot, where the only danger was being flicked by a cigarette butt, which she could deal with, considering what she had been imagining. She let out a sigh of relief and collapsed against the seat, feeling the life start returning to her.

"Rin what were you doing?"

She turned her head to see Kagome bent over in the doorway staring at her, a single eyebrow raised.

"Oh… you know… just… praying." Rin answered weakly, smiling as best she could.

"Praying?" Kagome echoed before shaking her head and offering her a hand. "C'mon silly, you're going to make us late."


	4. The Project

Chapter Four: The Project 

**A/N**: Ok, just like in the series, Kagome and Koga will not be an official couple in this fic, however they will be good friends. And while Koga may have a sort of "thing" for Kagome in later chapters, Kagome will never return the crush (her feelings will mostly be centered around Inuyasha) OK? OK.

Disclaimer: Inuyasha characters are not mine. :p

The Project 

"Oh God, I've got major butterflies." Kagome said nervously, pushing her messenger bag to the other side of her body so that she could walk more closely to Rin (Sango's currently in the bathroom due to Kagome's driving). "_Please_ tell me that one of you has first period with me." She begged, looking down over her friend's shoulder as Rin pulled her schedule out of a little, brown puppy-backpack.

"Oh, um… let's see. Sango's got Algebra II first period… so that's right by the bathroom; she'll probably just go straight to class once she's done throwing – uh" Rin caught herself quickly, casting a nervous glance at Kagome. "Throwing the rest of her make up on."

Rin never wore makeup. Usually she didn't need it; she was very pretty, a cute girl with dark black hair that shone and was layered to fall around her shoulders and into her remarkably bright hazel eyes. Usually she wore the top half of her hair up in a high sideways ponytail, a look that added to her own bouncy personality, but today she wore it down. It was more formal she had explained, for her first day of school and all. She was by far the tiniest of her two other friends, but she made up for her size by somehow always managing to make herself the center of attention when it came to everything.

Rin was unquestionably the most energetic and enthusiastic of both Sango and Kagome combined. She always was ready to do fun things, tackle adventures, and she was _always_ ready to talk, the last quality making her an excellent gossip. She clung to rumors like the adults clung to the news, always on top of it, always listening, always talking. In fact, Rin even had a habit of talking all the time. To herself, with her friends, strangers… it didn't matter who it was, she never stopped.

"_I just hate the silence…_" She had explained to Sango and Kagome a couple years ago. "_It freaks me out. So I just start talking, its like I can't even help it."_

She was also an earth loving, tree hugging, save-the-little-animal-on-the-side-of-the-road kind of girl… to an extreme. A complete vegetarian and strict recycler. Nothing got between Rin and her recycling. All these things you would be able to tell after spending about five minutes with her, and the chances were you'd love her for it, no matter how annoying she seemed to be at first. But what you wouldn't be able to tell from spending a day with Rin Otanachi was that she was an orphan.

In fact, you could probably spend a year with friendly, chatter-box Rin and never once suspect that she was a foster child. She never brought it up. It was the only thing she didn't talk about. Kagome often wondered at her friend's happy-go-lucky attitude that no one, no matter how mean and insulting their verbal bullets might be, seemed to be able to deflate. If she hadn't known Rin when _it _had happened Kagome would have never been able to tell that Rin's first family had been murdered brutally by a serial killer seven years ago.

Rin had once had two brothers, older, goofy, fun-loving type of guys. Both with great sense of humor, and a fun, easy-going outlook on their lives… or at least the lives they had had before they were murdered. Their names had been Seito and Krin, one of which a much younger Kagome had had a major crush on, right up until _it_ happened.

The three girls had been in the fourth grade together at the time, and Rin rode bus home alone. Kagome still remembered the way her mother had shaken her awake in the middle of the night and told her in a low voice to get up. The lights weren't on, and it was very dark. Her mother told her that they were going to go see Rin at the hospital. They had to leave right now.

Kagome hadn't known what was going on, but she could tell her mother was scared, and it was because her mom was scared that Kagome was terrified. So she had done what she was told and gotten out of her bed quietly, as if afraid of making any kind of noise in silent darkness. She hadn't asked any questions, she was too scared to open her mouth. Scared by the look on her own mother's face, by the darkness of the room… by the very way her mother was moving. And mostly by that feeling that something much bigger and more important than herself had just taken place. But she didn't understand it.

A few hours later Sango's mom had pulled up beside the Higurashi car in Tokyo hospital's parking lot. A tall woman with long black hair emerged from the driver's seat, looking pale and sick with worry. Just like Ms. Higurashi.

Sango was asleep in the back, a sandy brown teddy bear crossed tightly beneath her arms, his black button eyes looking lifelessly out the window at Kagome's reflection. When Kagome opened the back door to the car, she shook her friend till Sango's soft brown eyes opened and stared at her. She hadn't wanted to be the only child awake when the grown-ups were acting so strangely. At least this way she wasn't alone.

"_Alright, now listen…"_ Kagome's mother had said, her brown eyes weary and tired, so different from the ones that Kagome was used to seeing. _"Rin's inside the hospital."_ Kagome's stomach dropped, instinctively she reached out for her best friend's hand. _"She's ok, but something very bad as just happened to her and she told the doctors that she wanted to see you two."_ Mrs. Higurashi made a point of looking directly at the two little girls', making sure that they were keeping eye contact with her; making sure that they were listening. _"She's going to be a little frightened, ok? So both of you make sure to be extra, extra nice."_

Kagome nodded, her stomach starting to move around as she grew more nervous.

Sango spoke up now, her young voice was so quiet Kagome had barely been able to hear. _"What happened?" _It was a tone of mild wonder, of seriousness. It was a tone that was a little too old for Sango's young voice.

Mrs. Higurashi got that look in her eyes again, that look of tired sadness… of sickness… and it was so unnerving for her that Kagome didn't even want to know the answer to Sango's question. Apparently, Mrs. Higurashi didn't think they wanted to know either. _"We'll tell you that… later."_ The tired woman said, looking up at Sango's mother, who was standing on the other side of the car, her eyes cast down on the pavement, just as weary…just as worn.

"_Ok…"_

"_Now, Rin says she wants to be with you, but she doesn't want to play with you. She may not want to be touched right now ok? No pushing, no shoving, no rough housing… or screaming."_ She directed a look to Sango, who was more of a Tomboy than Kagome was and had a tendency for "rough housing". _"She's tired. And she doesn't want to be alone, but she doesn't want to play either… do you understand?"_

Kagome frowned, slightly disturbed. Rin didn't want to play? But Rin _always_ wanted to play…

"_She may want to talk about what happened, and she may not. But whatever she wants to do you just let her do it ok?" _

"_Ok…"_

"_Remember, 'extra, extra nice'."_

Rin hadn't wanted to talk. When the two pairs of mother and daughter had finally reached the correct hospital ward, the mothers rushed off to talk to tall men in white suits. May of them with clip boards… one of them with a pair of lemon yellow glasses. Leaving the three children standing together in a ring in the corner.

"_Hi, Rin."_ Kagome said quietly, nervous around the smaller girl for the first time in the entire year that they had known each other. It was obvious that something had happened, but she didn't know what it was… she was afraid she'd make a mistake, or that she'd say something wrong. She just didn't know how to react. And apparently neither did Rin. The little girl just stared quietly at her friends. Silent. Her hazel eyes were strangely unreadable… they were almost blank… but distinctly not. Emotion was pooling just underneath the surface. An emotion that was frighteningly strong… an emotion that Kagome had never encountered before. It made her nervous.

Eventually Rin looked down to the white linoleum floor beneath her, and she didn't look up at them again.

"_Rin… you're still in your school clothes…"_ Sango noticed, examining the smaller girl carefully, as if looking for some hints that would tell her what had happened to her friend. And she found one. She just didn't recognize it. _"What's that on your collar?"_ The little hand had reached out, going to touch a dirty red splatter-shaped stain on Rin's shirt. _"What is this… blood? Did you have a nose bleed?" _ Sango had asked curiously. _"I get those all the time."_

Nothing.

"_You wanna hold my teddy?"_

No response. Rin wasn't talking. She wasn't moving for Teddy. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. Kagome knew it. She could feel it. And Sango could too. They knew Rin too well to not be afraid of her behavior. Just today she had been a bouncing ball of energy, pulling on their pigtails and jumping off the swings with them… but now… she was so different. She was so strange. It was like she was all… all locked up inside. She wasn't talking to them. She wouldn't be talking to anyone for a very long time.

But even if Rin had felt like telling them about what had happened to her that night in the hospital, Kagome realized now, as she stood in the hall with her engrossed friend, neither Sango or Kagome would have been old enough to even begin to understand.

"Um well… from the looks of it I have science for the first period with Ms. Dubose…" Rin stared at her schedule for a while, frowning. "Ew." Suddenly a look of horror crossed over her face. "Oh my God, I hope we're not doing anything horrible like dissecting frogs." A look of desperation crossed over the little-animal-on-the-side-of-the-road-saving-girl's face. "That would be so mean! I so _hate_ scie-"

"We don't dissect frogs." Someone said suddenly from behind them.

Both girls whipped around to see a tall, horsy looking woman standing just above their shoulders, small frail glasses perched on the tip of her incredibly long nose.

"Ms. Dubose!" Rin squeaked, her face going pale. "Umm… what I meant was… I… I don't like cyber… food." She finished lamely.

"Nice to see you again, Rin." The woman said peering at the flustered girl from over the top of her spectacles before scribbling something down on her clipboard. "As I was saying, we don't dissect frogs."

Rin let out a little sigh of relief. "Oh… that's so good to hear, because my friend Jaken, you had him in your class last year, told me that he had to dissect a poor defenseless bullfrog in your class."

Ms. Dubose shook her head quickly back and forth, reminding Kagome of a bobble head stuck in and earthquake. Her red-brown hair was tied up in a tight bun at the back of her head, every single strand staying tightly locked in place. "Well, he was quite mistaken, then, dear." Ms. Dubose said, surprising Kagome with the informal nickname.

'"_Dear?" …_' Kagome gave Rin a funny look, but she didn't seem to notice. Kagome decided to shake it off. '_She probably uses the same nickname with everyone else._' She reasoned. '_But then again… if there's a student out there who can break through a teacher's icy, formal behaviors it would be Rin._'

"You can go to websites for simulations of frog dissections." Ms. Dubose said reasonably.

Rin brightened. "I know! I've been trying to _tell _everybod-"

"We dissect kittens."

Kagome watched slowly as Rin's face turned an ashy white color, her hazel eyes widening in shock. "E-excuse me?" She whispered, her hand gripping her puppy-backpack so tightly that Kagome thought it was going to burst. Although this time Kagome could understand, even _she_ was a little disturbed by the thought of what Ms. Dubose had just said.

The woman looked up from her clipboard and gazed hard at Rin through her spectacles, moving them up the bridge of her long thin nose so as to see her better. "_Kittens_, dear, _kittens_!" Ms. Dubose repeated, her voice sounding harsh and cutting, as if she were trying to snap Rin out of a daydream. "We dissect kittens!"

Rin's face was practically green by now. All the color had drained away… leaving the poor girl stuttering for air and gripping the puppy-backpack to the point that Kagome noticed a little bit of stuffing starting to poke its way out from between the sewing. Rin opened her mouth, and then shut it again, looking as if she were torn between being sick, fainting, and screaming. As it was, Kagome thought that maybe she would be buying a certain someone a new puppy dog-backpack for Christmas.

And then the bell rang.

"Oh, come along then." Ms. Dubose said, promptly tucking the clipboard to her side and grabbing Rin's elbow. "Let's get along to class, we shouldn't be late on our first day of school now should we, dear?"

"Kittens?" Rin whispered hoarsely as she was dragged backwards down the hall.

"Wait!" Kagome called after them. "Whose going to show me the way to my first class?"

Ms. Dubose ignored her.

"Kittens?" Rin's tone was turning slightly desperate as Ms. Dubose hauled her around the corner and into the science lab.

Kagome chased after them and stopped when she practically ran to the closed door, her black sandals scuffing the white tile badly. For a moment, Kagome wondered if she should walk in and ask to have Rin back, explaining of course that she was new and didn't know her way around.

"KITTENS!" Came a slightly frantic screech from inside the lab. Kagome's shoulders sagged. Judging from the sound of that scream, even if she did try and get Rin out she didn't think the girl would be in any state to be able to show Kagome to her first class. So it was with a tired sigh that Kagome fished in her messenger bag and pulled out a folded piece of paper, reading carefully.

"Monday… first period… English…room 206. Ok, no problem." She said, looking back up. "I should be able to find room 206 on my own… in a huge high school… that I've never been in before… without anyone else to help me… Yeah."

She was lost within the next three minutes. She was somewhere between room 127 and 222, and she had no idea where she was going. '_Great…_' she thought to herself as she looked helplessly at the whitewashed halls that all looked the same. '_My first day and the teacher already thinks I'm too stupid to get to class on time._' Slowly, as she stared at her schedule, contemplating it, she became aware of a certain noise. What _was_ that? She lifted her head from the schedule to listen. It was getting louder. It sounded like… jingling.

She carefully turned around and frowned at the source of the noise. Then slowly she retraced her steps and rounded the corner she had just taken a second ago, coming face to face with a boy.

"Oh… hi." She said, struck immediately by his stunning golden colored eyes. He was about a head and a half taller than her, with long, silver hair and a face that made her heart lurch in her chest… he was "really hot" as Rin would have declared shamelessly. Stunningly so. And from the looks of it he worked out too… She couldn't help herself as she looked him up and down, tracing the muscles in his arms, the abs under his muscle shirt… and then she hit his black cargo pants. So that's where the noise was coming from. The thud most likely from the combat boots… the jingling from the chains… and the spikes? What kind of guy wore spikes on his cargo pants?

Suddenly she became aware that she had been staring. "Oh um… hi." She said again, looking up at him, trying to keep her stomach from coming up her throat as she spoke. Why was he looking at her that way? Like he was in… shock or something. His eyes were so… intense. And there was a cigarette hanging limply from the corner of his mouth, his lips parted in shock as he stared at her, not even blinking.

"Um, I'm new here." She said nervously, smiling as best she could, trying not to cringe as the smoke from the smoldering cigarette hit her nose. "And I'm lost too." She said with a bit of an embarrassed laugh. "Do you think you could tell me where room 206 is?" She asked hopefully.

He just stared at her.

And she waited.

But nothing else happened.

Shifting nervously she cleared her throat. "Um… could you show me where…" She trailed as she noticed something about him that she hadn't seen before… his ears. They were dog-ears… perched on top of his head. Were they real? As she stared at them they flicked slightly forwards and she practically yelped. They were real.

And now both teenagers were hopelessly lost in their staring at one another. His eyes locked on her face. Her eyes locked on his ears… and neither of them moving. Barely breathing.

He was stunned. A flood of emotions immediately welled up inside of him when he saw that face… it was her… but at the same time it wasn't. The bad feelings resurfaced and threatened to tear him up inside as he wondered how it was possible. _'No…'_

'_His ears… they're so fuzzy looking…so soft… I… I just want to… to touch them._' So she did. Not even realizing what she was doing, Kagome gently reached up, her elegant pencil smudged hand moving slowly until finally, barely, the tips of her fingers brushed against his ear.

And with that their private world was shattered.

"Oh!" Kagome said, retracting her hand quickly as the boy jerked away from her. Both of them surprised at what she had done. "I'm sorry." She said, incredibly embarrassed and thoroughly confused. "I don't know why I did that."

He gave her a funny look, the cigarette no longer threatening to fall out from his mouth as he closed his lips together again.

Trying desperately to wrench herself away from his gaze she turned back to her schedule. But it was hard for her even then to forget about those eyes and they way they had looked at her. He had amazing eyes… smoldering with emotion… with feeling. They made her feel. It was a shame that she would probably never get to know him well enough to be able to draw a picture of him. Mentally she slapped herself. '_Focus on the classes!_' "Ummm… I'm looking for room 206." She said for the third time, this time hoping that he would finally tell her where it was.

The ear touching seemed to have pulled him out of whatever trance that he had been trapped in earlier. A nasty look spread on his face, as if he were disgusted that she were talking to him. "Feh." He said casually, shrugging his shoulders. "So?"

She blinked, taken aback. "So… could you tell me where it is? Or show me?"

He seemed to consider it for a while before finally taking a drag from his cigarette and walking past her, jerking his head as an indication for her to follow. She gave a grateful sigh before falling in step beside him. "Thanks so much." She said, relieved. "I have no idea what I'd have done if I didn't run into you."

She didn't notice the look that he was giving her. The way he was staring at her out of the corner of his eye. She didn't know that her just being near him made him feel on edge. Firstly because she looked so much like Kikyo… and secondly because it had been so long since anyone had actually walked beside him. He could hardly remember the last time anyone had ever walked that closely to him since the shooting. It felt… weird. To be walking with someone. To be next to them… particularly this girl… He had forgotten the feeling. And the sound of her sandals shuffling in rhythm with his combat boots… it was an alien sound. Her scent was so gentle… it was clean. And it made his heart jerk.

As soon as she saw room 206 she bolted for it. Turning around when her hand hit the doorknob and smiled gratefully at him, "Thanks so much again! You're a total life-saver."

He flinched. Ironic that she should call him that…

The strange girl went to turn the doorknob in her hand before stopping and looking back at him. "Oh and, I was just wondering, what's your name?"

He raised an eyebrow at her, forgetting that she had told him she was new. Everyone in Tokyo high knew that he was Inuyasha. And even if they didn't, they usually had already been warned about him by the time they had hit first period. Well that explained why she had asked him about the classroom…

He turned around without answering, heading down the hall and blatantly ignoring her question. Kagome frowned, about to call after him when he suddenly seemed to change his mind. He stopped dead in the hall and didn't move for a while. Then he sighed, as if giving in, and took the cigarette out of his mouth, turning around again to face her, saying that it his name was Hanyouri, Inuyasha, and not to bother to remember it before he started off again.

Kagome stared after him for a while before running into the English room. That was kind of weird…

"This project will count for fifty percent of your term grade, and I will not be lenient just because this is your first project of the school year, nor will I tolerate any complaining of what I feel is your justly deserved grade. It's time you learned your place in this high scho-"

Kagome chose that inopportune moment to burst rather unceremoniously into the man's classroom, jerk to a halt, and engage in yet another staring contest. This time with the teacher. The first thought that entered her mind was '_Whoa… he's… really… cute._' It felt weird to think of a teacher that way, but soon those thoughts were soon lost when another one hit her: '_And he's so totally gonna kill me._'

"Higurashi, Kagome." She announced herself, bowing respectfully. "I'm so sorry I'm late sensei-san. I got lost and I-"

"I don't need your excuses."

Kagome blinked and looked up. The man was staring coldly at her, his eyes were gold, and penetrating. Just like Inuyasha's. In fact he looked a lot like Inuyasha. The same long silver hair, he same colored eyes… some of the same shape of his face. But this man's appearance was more elegant, more refined. And he was obviously older. But not that much older, he might have been twenty or twenty-one. And also… his eyes were the same color as the boy's she had just met in the hall but… they didn't quite effect her as much. They didn't inspire her to whip out a sketchpad and pencil like Inuyasha's had. The boy Inuyasha's were burning with emotion… with feeling. But the Sensei's eyes were… cold. Cold like ice. Enough to physically make her shiver.

Next Kagome noted, with surprise, the half-moon tattooed on the Sensei's forehead, which made Kagome blink. He didn't come across as a tattoo-kind-of-guy. (A/N: as for the red stripes on his face? They're not there. I'm just going to say that those are like war paint or something similar and can be washed off in the Feudal Era. I'm not going to have him walking around modern Japan with stripe things plastered on his face, he's just too cute for that. Sorry red stripe fans /)

"Class," The man started, his voice cold and emotionless. "Higurashi has just demonstrated something else which I will not allow in my classroom." The teacher turned away from her, his attention now focused on her fellow classmates. "Tardiness. It will not be accepted. First period beings at 8:15, and you are late as of 8:05. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Sensei." The entire class responded, their voices crisp and clear and formal. Kagome noticed the way all of his students sat up straight in their seats, they're bodies rigid, they're eyes locked on the front of the room. Kagome gulped. This guy must be tough.

"Ms. Higrashi, if it pleases you, you may give me your excuse for being late, though it will not serve to save you from a detention tomorrow afternoon."

Kagome cringed, detention on her first day of school. What would her father think when he called? "Well, I'm new here." Kagome started meekly, feeling that it was hopeless for her to be explaining herself now; she was going to get a detention anyway. "And my best friend, Rin… that's Otanachi, Rin, was going to show me to my classes today, but she was late for Sensei Dubose's science class, and I didn't really know my way around so I got… lost." Kagome said lamely, realizing that that was probably the same excuse _every_ new kid told their teacher on the first day of school.

There was a long silence. Finally the silver-haired Sensie spoke. "I see…. I suppose I could over look this… once." He said, his voice still emotionless and coldly monotone.

Kagome blinked, the classroom seemed shocked. Everybody stared dumbly at her.

"You may have a seat, Ms. Higurashi. Please place yourself beside the other new student… Kambia, Koga."

"Thank you, Sensei." Kagome lowered her bow slightly before standing and looking around the classroom. The only empty seat was in the back, second row over from the window. And sitting at the window was an onyx-black haired boy with shocking crystal blue eyes that were very much like her own. He raised his hand in as if to get her attention, smiling. Gratefully she took the seat next to his.

He nodded at her as she sat down, and she smiled back at him. He seemed nice.

"Like I was saying before Ms. Higurashi's _interruption_." The Senei continued, sitting on his desk as if he were in a casual setting. Kagome watched the way he ran his fingers through his long silver hair, every movement deliberate and perfectly balanced. Maybe he was a dancer. She cringed at the way he glared at her when he said "interruption" clearly rubbing salt into the wound. How as she ever supposed to survive this class?

It was then that something kicked at her foot. Blinking, Kagome looked down to see a little crumpled piece of paper lying beside her shoe. She glanced at Koga, who kept his eyes locked straight ahead, not paying any obvious attention to her. And then, discretely, she stepped on the note and dragged it under her desk, she then pretended to adjust a strap on her sandal, picking up the note and curling it into her fingers as she did so.

"And further more, if you do not do well on this project, it will reflect poorly on your second term grades as well as the first."

'_Geez, his guy **is **tough…'_ Kagome thought nervously to herself. She had no idea who in God's name she was supposed to fend for her own… this Sensei would slaughter her.

Turning her attention away from the teacher (A/N: not a smart move Kagome). She slowly she opened the note in her lap. She frowned at first, barely able to make out the messy scrawl, but after a few seconds she found it legible.

_The Sensei's name is Hanyouri, Sesshomaru. And don't feel bad about earlier. The guy's a jerk. And I'm pretty sure he's gay. _

_Koga_

Kagome smiled, folding the note and putting it her pocket. She turned to look at the boy sitting next to her. Koga winked, a smirk tilting his lips before he turned to look back at the teacher.

"Ms. Higrashi." Kagome whipped her head around to look directly at Sesshomaru, her stomach twisting.

"Sensei?"

"You weren't here to choose your partner like the rest of the class was so you are currently without. Fortunately for you, though, neither was Hanyouri, Inuyasha. So you two will be paired together as a result. You will be each writing papers on one another, so as to better get to know your partner. You will be given a sheet of questions tomorrow in class, the answers to which will serve as the basic foundation to your paper. The assignment must be completely finished by the end of the first term. No excuses. I'm expecting no less than a thousand pages from all of you, typed, single-spaced. No bigger than font twelve. Is that understood? "

Kagome nodded. The rest of the class looked horrified. Beside her, Koga coughed something that sounded suspiciously like "nutcase".

"But Sensei you can't pair her up with-" one girl started, sounding as if she were panicking. But all Sesshomaru had to do was look at her and she fell silent, the slightly frantic pitch in her voice fading into silence. Once Sesshomaru had resumed his lecturing, the girl who had piped up turned in her seat and gave Kagome a pitying look. Kagome wondered what it was for…


	5. The New Girl Experience

**A/N**: Can't get this stupid chappy right. Sorry it's boring. The next one will be better and hopefully funnier if it turns out right. Right then.

Kagome and Koga left the classroom together, both of them getting up and hitting the door at the same time because they had been seated in the same area. Behind them a sea of pushy students were all trying to shove their way out the doorframe to safety, or in other words, far, far away from Sensei Sesshomaru.

"So you're new here too?" Koga asked conversationally as they started down the painted cement hall together, their books in hand. His voice was sort of rough… but it was friendly.

"Yeah, we just moved back here from Osaka." Kagome replied, trying to sound friendly; she was still grateful for the note he had sent her in the middle of class.

"Osaka, huh?" Koga asked, his voice thoughtful, "Never been."

"Well you're not missing out on anything," Kagome said. "Tokyo's way better than it is over there."

Koga smiled at her before nodding his head back at the classroom behind them. "So what did you think of that Sensei back there? _Completely _gay, right?"

Kagome half laughed as she found her locker door and reached in to grab her books for next period. "I don't know… but he _is_ kind of scary." She admitted, fishing around till she found The Conquests of Rome.

"Him? Nah, he ain't nothing to worry about." Koga said off-handedly, tilting his head in order to move some of his black hair out of his eyes as he leaned back lazily on the locker next to hers. "Too bad you were late," he said, studying the delicately pale azure sky out the window with a distracted interest. "We could have been partners for that stupid project he assigned."

"Yeah, too bad." Kagome said sincerely, closing her locker door. She would have liked to have found out more about Koga. "Well, I've got history next. What about you?"

"Science." Koga made a disgusted face. "I heard that they make you dissect kittens."

Kagome smothered her laughter beneath her hand, remembering Rin's horrified face from earlier that morning. She wondered if her friend had been able to make it through first period without having a mental breakdown.

Koga raised an alarmed eyebrow at her reaction. "Uh, Okaay." He said, straightening off the lockers and scratching the back of his neck in the awkwardness. "Take it you don't like kittens that much…"

"What? Oh, no," Kagome said still laughing a little beneath her breath. "It's not that… it's just my friend, she um, well, never mind."

Koga gave her a funny look before he shrugged and started walking away toward the science lab. "Ok whatever." He said as he started off. "See ya later, kitten hater." He shouted as he left her standing at her locker.

"I'm _not_ a kitten hater!" She called after him, trying and failing to sound annoyed as she let out a short breath of laughter.

He smiled over his shoulder at her before he rounded the corner, making her feel a little bit better than she had earlier that morning. At least she now had _one_ friend in her English class, a friend she figured she would need with a teacher like Sesshomaru.

She turned around and headed in the general direction of what she thought was the history room, only to have a hand latch onto her arm as and yank her forcefully into the girl's bathroom without warning.

"KAGOME!"

"Whoa!" Kagome gasped as stumbled into a large blue tiled room that smelled like cheap perfume and nail polish remover. The wall parallel to her was lined with white sinks and a broad expanse of mirror, and parallel to that was a set of small green bathroom stalls, written on with permanent marker; rumors like: "Sharon loves Trevor" and "Stacy is a slut". And in front of her were Rin and Sango.

The two girls were right up in her face, and both of them staring at her with intense and determined faces. It wasn't an unfamiliar expression: her two best friends were on a mission. Great.

"What?" Kagome asked a little irritated and startled by their unexpected ambush as she pulled her right arm away from Rin's grip. The smaller girl, however, was unfazed by Kagome's tone.

"Who was _that_!" Rin demanded excitedly as she motioned in the direction of the hallway outside. "Why haven't you _introduced _us _before_!"

"Who? Koga?" Kagome asked, still a little confused as she made her way over to the mirrors to check for hair frazzles. Sango and Rin followed her out of habit and stood closely to her, as if to try and pressure the information out of her. As if that would work.

"I don't know his name!" Rin burst out, exasperated. "I'm talking bout the _total _hottie that just walked you to your locker a second ago!"

Kagome sighed, running her fingers through her dark hair before looking at their reflections in the mirror beside hers. "Look, he's just some guy I met in class." Kagome said, slightly annoyed at their expectant expressions.

"Just some _guy_!" Rin practically screeched, making Sango and Kagome wince. "Just some _guy_! Kagome he was _way _too _cute _to be '_just some guy_'!"

Kagome rolled her eyes, hoping no one was quietly occupying the green stalls and overhearing their conversation. _That _would be embarrassing. "Is that _all_ you ever think about, Rin?"

Rin gave her a funny look, "_Duh_." She said bluntly, the slight valley-girl-like-tone made Sango cringe. "What do _you_ think about?"

"She thinks about drawing their portraits." Sango teased, poking at Kagome's stomach. "That's it."

Kagome smiled. "Shut up." She said, pretending to be mean. "Anyway, it's not even like that. Koga's new here too so it was easier for me to talk to him."

"Well _obviously_ he likes you!" Rin whispered excitedly, even though there was no possible way for Koga to have heard them now. And if there _was _a girl hiding in the bathroom, she was still well in hearing range as there was a small echo in the bathroom. "I mean you two are already on nick-name terms!" She squealed excitedly.

Kagome shot her friend an alarmed look. "What?"

"Kagome… '_kitten-hater'_ weren't you listening?" Rin said, as if it were obvious that that had been what she was talking about.

"Oh yeah, because '_kitten-hater_' is what every girl dreams of being called by a guy like Koga." Sango sad dryly, rolling her eyes at Rin. "When you hear that you just _know _that they're getting warm and fuzzy." Her sarcasm dropped and she smiled, starting to sound sincere. "If she says he's just a friend, then he's just a friend, Rin. Let it _go_."

Sango had never been one for gossip and rumors, or boys for that matter. And now that she was certain that there wasn't anything between Kagome and the new guy, she was satisfied to leave the topic alone. Too bad Rin wasn't.

"So you're telling me that if he asked you out a week from now, you wouldn't say yes?" Rin asked Kagome coyly, apparently choosing to ignore Sango's statement.

"That's what I'm saying." Kagome said firmly. "Yeah he's… cute… I'll admit, but he's just a friend kind of person. I don't feel any… you know… sparks."

"Sparks?"

"Yeah… you know like… sparks."

At this, Sango smirked. "Oh yeah… that helped."

Kagome punched the other girl's arm playfully. "You know what I mean."

Sango grinned. "Yeah, whatever. Listen, I've got to, I've got home ec. next."

At that Kagome's jaw practically hit the sink and she whipped around to face Sango. "_You_ take _home ec_!" She managed, still staring in awe at her.

This time Sango punched Kagome's arm. "Hey, knock it off, I'm trying aren't I? Besides, its not any worse than the idea of you taking drivers ed."

Rin burst into giggles while Kagome started to frown. "What?"

At that Sango started giggling too, and soon both girls were too breathless to explain.

"Hey!" Kagome nudged Sango by the shoulder. "_What's wrong_ with _my driving_?"

Sango broke free of the giggles and checked her watch, still smiling. "Nothing, Kagome, nothing at all." She said as she opened the door and started in the same direction that Koga had. "I've got to go, guys, see you at lunch!"

Kagome stared suspiciously after the taller girl while Rin still giggled at her side.

"Ok, enough of that." Kagome said, putting her hands on her hips and nudging at Rin. "Show me the way to history, Silly."

"Oh, you've got history?" Rin asked, her giggles finally subsiding as she sighed for breath. "So do I, come on, I'll take you."

The three girls met up later at lunch, and led Kagome out onto the campus to eat under a nearby willow.

"This is the best spot in the entire shool!" Rin declared proudly before dropping her bags and sitting down on the ground to eat.

"Hm… guess I'll just have to trust you guys." Kagome said skeptically as she eyed the sparse grass, dappled sunlight poured through the leaves and hit the earth like specs of gold, gently moving back and forth.

"Trust us, it's the best!" Rin giggled happily to herself as she started unwrapping the layer of saran wrap on her all-vegetarian-sandwich.

"So, Kagome, how's your first day going?" Sango asked conversationally as she dug her spoon into her vanilla pudding cup. "New girl experience still sucks?"

Kagome sighed as she took a bite out of her apple, positioning herself so that she was sitting on hers side, supporting the brunt of her weight on her hand without the apple. "Yeah… basically." She admitted, preparing to pour her new girl stress out to her friends in hopes that it would make herself feel better. "As it was I almost got detention during my first period." She miserably, taking another bite from the crisp fruit, licking the juice off of her lips with her tongue before swallowing.

"Detention?" Sango raised an eyebrow. "_You_? That's almost as bizarre as the idea of _Rin_ getting a dention."

"I did." Rin interrupted pointedly, looking up from her sandwich for the first time.

"Did what?'

"Got a detention." Rin answered, blushing a little.

Sango looked alarmed and set down the pudding. "_You_ got a detention too? From _who_?"

"Ms. Dubose." Rin said in a tone of disgust, sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth and rolling her eyes before she took a chunk out of her tofu, lettuce and tomato sandwich.

"I thought she liked you." Kagome frowned. "What happened?"

"She wanted me to agree to dissect a _kitten_!" Rin shrieked. At which Sango nearly choked on her pudding. (which takes talent, considering it normally just slides down your throat).

"_What_?" Sango asked, apparently just as mortified as Rin was. If you knew anything about Rin, you knew not to ask her to do anything remotely harmful to anything cute and fuzzy. You just didn't. Not unless you wanted a protest with megaphones and signs and angry chants outside your door the next day.

"I know!" Rin screeched, the begging of tears starting to well up in her pretty hazel eyes. "It's was _so_ **_mean_**! She showed me a pic-picture! And it was just sitting there on the tray… it was…" her voice cracked and she wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "I can't believe how horrible the entire school is! I mean, _kittens_!"

"Yeah… I wonder how Koga did in that class…" Kagome said off-handedly.

"Oh!" Rin said suddenly, dropping her sandwich into her lunch pail, the thought of kittens quite completely forgotten. "I almost forgot! Gimme _all_ the juicy details on your new boyfriend!" She said with a sniffle.

Kagome rolled her eyes and groaned. "He's _not_ my boyfriend!"

"Whatever! Boy-friend to be!" Rin said excitedly. "When did you meet him?"

"First period." Kagome said darkly, remembering again just how miserable that specific class had been; what with the impossible project she had been assigned and the way Sensei Sesshomaru had treated her for being late. "Which is when I _almost_ got a detention by the way."

"Who gave it to you?" Sango asked, shooting her pudding cup and plastic spoon away effortlessly into a nearby garbage can.

"Sensei Sesshomaru." Kagome sad, biting her apple again. Sango suddenly stiffened, her eyes shooting sideways to Rin who didn't seem to notice.

"Oh, him?" Rin asked, picking up her sandwich again and leaning against the trunk. "How did you get him to let you go?" She asked, tilting her head a bit with mild curiosity.

Kagome frowned at Sango who seemed to let out a breath of relief before rummaging in her lunch box again. "Um… actually I'm not sure. I just told him why I was late and he said he'd let it pass."

At that both Rin and Sango blinked and looked at her. "That's it?" They said together, their tones exactly same: shock.

"Yeah. I don't know what I did right but I must have done something."

Sango frowned. "Wait, so what exactly did you _say _to him?"

"I said that-"

"Hey!" Rin interrupted the conversation shamelessly, her left hand darting up into the air and waving frantically. "Jaken! Come sit with us!"

Kagome turned to look where Rin was looking, her crystal blue eyes falling on a dwarfish boy who was waddling past them on the sidewalk. He had incredibly large, coke-bottle lens glasses that bugged out his eyes to an unbelievable size and a scraggly shock of mousy greenish hair that was barely even there. His nose was incredibly short and snout-like, and seemed to rest on his lips which were inhumanly thin, and shot out of his face as if they were pursed 24/7.

Kagome glanced over at Sango, and her friend returned with a look that clearly stated her disgust. But… he _was_ Rin's friend. With this in mind, Kagome reluctantly scooted herself over to clear a space for him, all the while silently whishing he wouldn't come over.

The boy, however, jerked his head around to look at Rin, saw her and abruptly snapped his head down to stare at his feet as he then hurried into the school. He was moving at a speed which suggested that he thought Rin was going to spring up and chase after him. Which, now that she thought about it, Kagome wouldn't put past the rambunctious girl.

"Huh… that was weird." Rin said, lowering her hand and tilting her pretty face in confusion. "I wonder where he's going."

Kagome closed the triangle of friends again so that there was no more empty space for a visitor, while Sango tucked some soft brown hair behind her face. "He's probably going to fawn over-" But she stopped abruptly before she finished, glancing quickly at Rin before taking a chug of her water from her sports bottle. "Some girl." She finished lamely.

Kagome narrowed her eyes. She knew something was going on. "Okay. Spill." She said, setting down her half finished apple. "What's going on?"

"Nothing." Both girls replied, their positions straightening a bit as they glanced at each other. Sango began picking at her palms while Rin grabbed hold of her bottom lip with her teeth and began to suck gently on it. Both were unconscious signs of nervousness. And Kagome could recognize each of them.

Kagome gave a wry smile. "Come on, guys… I haven't been gone _that_ long. What's the secret?"

"Secret?" Sango asked, an eyebrow raising in apparent confusion, she dropped her palms when she saw Kagome looking at them. "What are you talking about?"

Kagome felt her annoyance irk. If they thought that she didn't know them well enough to be able to tell when they were hiding something… "Come on guys! What gives? What are you keeping from me?"

"Nothing." The unfamiliarity of Rin's voice made Kagome turn and look at her other friend. She practically bit her tongue when she met those cold hazel eyes. Rin was glaring at her. She was giving Kagome genuine, threatening, blood-chilling glare. And her tone had been sharp and alien. Kagome was stunned. She had never seen Rin give that look to anyone…

And then slowly, the hurt began to sink in. Trying to hide it, Kagome turned silently away and picked up her apple, not failing to notice the slightly guilty look Sango gave her before looking back to Rin again, alerting Kagome once more to the hurtful fact that she was being left out. But… she had never been left out before.

And Rin, the biggest gossiper she had ever known in her entire life had never held away secrets from anybody… let alone one of her best friends. It was a well known fact that Rin _couldn't _keep a secret, even if the life of a baby koala bear depended on it. Could it have been Sango's secret then?

No… it couldn't be. Not while Sango kept on looking nervously at Rin, as if asking her what to do, what to say, trying not to betray her. So it had to be Rin's secret… But even if the younger girl had somehow managed to keep a decent rumor quiet without exploding, why would she confide in Sango and not Kagome too? Sure she had been away for a while but…

"So," Sango said uneasily, trying awkwardly to break the ice. "What do you guys have next?"

"Algebra." Kagome said dryly, not ready to forgive either of them yet for snipping her.

"I've got to go write lines for Ms. Dubose." Rin said, her voice no longer cold but not quite as bouncy as usual either. "Fifteen minutes and then I'm going down to gym class."

"I guess I'll see you down there." Sango said. "I've got gym too."

They fell into a stifling silence. And the specs of golden sunlight danced as the wind rustled the leaves.

"Ugh… I can't believe my mom keeps packing me these things." Rin said quietly after a while, her voice ringing out into the thick silence as if it were somehow offensive. It annoyed Kagome slightly… she didn't know why. "Here, you want it, Kagome?"

Kagome turned and looked at the outstretched brownie in Rin's hand. A thick square of soft brown chocolate, little red sprinkles of sugar drizzled along the top… She knew very well that Rin loved brownies; in fact it was probably one she had made herself. And while this was an offering of peace, it wasn't a full-out confession of what the two girls were hiding. But still… it wasn't as if she could really blame them for having secrets now. She _had _been gone for two years.

She smiled, rather forcefully. "Thanks."

Rin let a grateful smile, weak with the passing tension spread across her face. Her body relaxed visibly, making Kagome realize just how on-edge her friend had been. "Welcome."

When the bell rang for the end of lunch, the three girls walked together from to the willow tree to their lockers, talking happily to each other, the slight moment of tension regarding the secret was gone and everything seemed to be forgiven.

"Alright I'm off to Algebra, I'll see you guys later."

"Later!" Sango and Rin called as Kagome disappeared around the corner of the hall. She had a rough idea where the Algebra room was, having passed it earlier on her way to history with Rin, so for now she didn't need a guide. And after Rin was finished writing lines for Ms. Dubose, she would meet Sango down at the gym. But for now the two girls were alone. And once Kagome had disappeared around the corner, the smiles fell of their faces and they looked at each other awkwardly, both knowing what the other was thinking about.

"Rin." Sango said as they started walking down the hall together, heading in the opposite direction Kagome had gone. "Are you going to tell her?"

Rin frowned and worried her lip, a kind of torn expression surfacing in her hazel eyes. "I don't know…" She said quietly. "I hate keeping anything from her but… I'm not supposed to tell anyone. I promised."

"You told me." Sango reminded her gently. "Why can't you tell Kagome too?"

"Because you found out on your own." Rin said with a smile for her friend. "Remember? I didn't actually come out and tell you, you tracked me down."

"Yeah but… Kagome will find out too. She's knows us too well to not realize…"

Rin nodded, seeming uncharacteristically introverted as she glanced at the English room, which they were passing by. Inside a cold, quiet voice was lecturing the students in a monotone, yet somehow it seemed like it could have been heard for miles. As she passed by the glass in the door the voice fell silent for a moment when it shouldn't have, making the sentence odd and choppy when it resumed. Rin smiled a little.

"Yeah… I know… I think I'll have to tell her…" Rin said quietly as she passed by the door. "I guess."

**A/N**: Umm… sorry for the wait? I'm pretty sure you all know what's going on. Heh. What can I say? Drama drama drama. Miroku comes along in the next chapter. (And Inuyasha will be back soon, don't worry I haven't forgotten about him I just need to set the rest of their story lines up). And a question for all you readers, a sort of poll, if that's what you want to call it, in the next chapter when Sango and Miroku meet, should they be meeting for the first time? Or should they already know each other? You decide.)

xoxnanirain


	6. Like Broken Glass

**Like Broken Glass**

**A/N**: I wrote this out of nowhere, but since Inuyasha hasn't been here for a while I figured I'd post it before the Miroku/Sango chapter

**Disclaimer**: I own it! I do! I do I do I do! (wakes up from dream) Oh… hi… -achem- "Inu-Yasha" the anime/manga that my fanfiction is based on does not belong to me… otherwise this wouldn't be fanfiction and I'd be filthy rich.

* * *

_ Like Broken Glass_...

It was the end of the day and the sky was a delicate pale blue dome above him, scattered with wisps of pearl colored clouds. The sun was warm and welcoming, its rays heating his unprotected skin and the pavement beneath him. Inuyasha took a deep breath of his cigarette and exhaled the smoke into his face, the same gentle breeze that played with his hair, carrying it away. It was a beautiful day. And Inuyasha was alone.

His legs dangled over the roof's edge, the heavy weight of his combat boots threatening to pull him over completely to a seven-story drop. But he didn't really care. His face was downcast and shadowy, the cigarette resting between his fingers was held up to the side of his face as he rested his elbow on his thigh.

He was thinking about _her_. It had been over a year. Over a god damned year and he still couldn't stop thinking about her. It had been over a year… and still the scar on the left side of his chest hadn't faded away. It was a constant reminder, _her_ reminder. He didn't even know why she had done it.

'_Why…_'

The memories were still as fresh as if it had all happened last night, not last night a year ago. And every time he thought about them they continued to cut into his already bleeding heart, like sharpened shards of broken glass.

"_You traitor… **traitor**!"_ He could still hear her voice screaming at him. See the tears running down her face, lit to shine beneath the white street lamp above her, casting shadows on her face as she looked down at him, her dark black hair glossy and hanging around her face like thick black ropes. She had let out a sob before pointing the rifle to herself.

Cold terror pierced through his already shocked brain, _"Ki-Kikyo" _It had sounded like someone else's voice, choking out her name, it had looked like someone else's hand reaching out to stop her. But the pain in his chest was real. He couldn't get up without falling back down.

He watched as her beautiful, porcelain face went from crazed rage and hurt to a horrible sadness. His heart, bullet lodged within it and all… was aching for her.

"_I'm sorry, Inuyasha…"_ She backed a step away from him a step, guilt starting to enter her beautiful dark eyes. _"I'm so sorry…" _She lifted her face upwards and into the light, a white, angelic light that flooded over her features. _"I'll be with you now… very soon… we'll go to **hell** together. I promise."_

It was silent as she lifted the gun into her mouth, tear paths still glittering down her face in the snow-white light. Her dark eyes closed.

"_No Kikyo! Stop!"_

Bang.

The cigarette butt was crushed into his white-knuckled fist, red hot embers smoldering and burning cruel ashen marks into the flesh of his palm. The pain brought him back into reality… a little. But it was already starting to subside. Damn being a hanyou…

* * *

**A/N**: Short I know. But you have to understand a few things. Inuyasha is still dweling on Kikyo's death, because he has nothing to distract him from it. I mean think about it, no one goes near him, no one talks to him, everyone's too afraid to try and get close to him so how could he possibly move on? When he gets to know Kagome… things will change. 


	7. Distractions

**Distractions

* * *

**

**A/N**: I keep on trying to write this Miroku/Sango chapter, but it just never turns out right! GRR! But it will be the next chapter! Or the one after that! I mean sooner or later I plan on getting past the first dang day!

**Disclaimer**: Any recognizable material does not belong to me.

* * *

_Distractions…_

It was not Kagome's fault, Rin had tried to convince her over and over again, that she was not good at math. It was… erm… the teachers; fault. Yeah, that was it, the teachers' fault. Definitely, not Kagome's. Not in the slightest.

But seeing as how Kagome had had five different math teachers and three separate tutors so far, she was seriously starting to doubt Rin's words. Math was her worst subject. Ever. Or possibly that was an understatement… if that was even possible. The reason for it was probably because unlike her other classes, she couldn't actually _understand _anything that her professor was saying to her.

Many times, Kagome had sworn that her math tutors and teachers weren't actually speaking real Japanese. And this teacher was no different. As she sat there in the chair, trying her very hardest to understand she realized that it was as if he were speaking an entire different language… a math language that only mathletes were allowed to understand.

Unfortunately, Kagome was very far from being a mathlete… she very, _very_ far indeed. It had been exactly twenty minutes into her first math class in Tokyo high and all she could make out was something about a dead Greek man's theory… it involved triangles and numbers. But what did it _matter_? _When_ would she ever need to make a triangle out of numbers?

'_Too many rules…_' Kagome thought miserably to herself as she tried to decipher the Professor's "math talk" into normal Japanese. But it was useless. She hated math. There were so many rules… so many restrictions, so many 'not-allowed's and 'you-can-only-do-this's. Whenever she tried to do a math problem, she felt like she was suffocating. It wasn't at all like art…

"Higurashi." The math professor's voice interrupted her rather gloomy thoughts, and unfortunately this time she could understand him… perfectly.

"H-hai?"

"Please come to the front of the classroom and complete this problem on the board." The dark haired man said with a casual tap at the board.

Kagome cringed, but did her best to smile. If only he _knew_ what he had just done to her… if only he had any vague inkling of how much pain he had just inflicted on her still fragile new-girl ego. "I'll… uh… try."

The room seemed abnormally silent as she walked up to the black board in the front of the classroom. Her back was luckily facing all the faces she was passing so she wouldn't have to look anyone in the eye and die of embarrassment. Her footsteps seemed to be the only sound to be heard, and suddenly she was horribly embarrassed. And she hadn't even made eye contact with anyone yet. Now not only was she a new kid, but she was the new kid who was the focus of the entire math class. Math happening to be her worst subject… So soon she would be the _dumb_ new kid. Just what she had been aiming for… (Sarcasm people)

Kagome sighed a little to herself as she picked up the white chalk pellet and commenced her stare-down with the black board in front of her. '_Right… _A _squared plus _B_ squared… wait is it plus or times… what squares? I thought we were making triangles…?'_ Oh she couldn't remember. She frowned, feeling more and more embarrassed as someone behind her coughed. She gulped down the sticky dryness in her throat, fingering the white chalk in her fingertips, leaving a soft white residue that was only a bit of a comfort.

And what did all these numbers have to do with triangles anyway? _Square_ numbers… what was a _square _number anyway? Numbers were numbers… not squares. And supposedly these 'squared' numbers and formulas made up the triangles… but she knew that wasn't true. She could draw triangles very easily and all she needed was something to do it with. Like a pencil. Or a paint brush. Even a hump of clay would do. She didn't need numbers or formulas, and she didn't need the alphabet either. A and B were _not_ numbers. All she needed to make a triangle was something… like the chalk stick in her hand.

Her attention caught on the way its pearly powder was now caked on her fingertips, making her skin a pale, snow-capped white… white like that Hanyouri guy's hair… Inuyasha had it been? He had amazing eyes… golden ones. She couldn't quite remember exactly what they looked like anymore, but she could still feel their fire.

She could still remember the silent, hard intensity that she saw in them. His eyes were the kind of eyes that didn't back down from anyone. Didn't give in for anything… intense eyes… eyes that were somehow more… alive than almost anyone else she had ever met. Glimmering from when the light hit them from the halls, reflections of a past she didn't know were just beyond the golden surface. A golden iris cracked with shades of deep brown. She had never seen such eyes…

"Achem."

Kagome blinked. Suddenly she was in a math room again, and she could suddenly feel thirty pairs of eyes fixated solely on her back. Slowly she let herself come back to reality, her hand falling from the blackboard as she gaped in horror. _What_ was she doing?

"Ms. Higurashi… _what_ are you doing?"

Kagome turned to look at the math teacher and smiled sheepishly. "Uh… s-sorry… I got a little –erm– lost."

There was a long pause. "Yes, I can see that." Her professor said plainly, staring pointedly at the large white eye Kagome had unconsciously begun to draw in the middle of his previously scripted formula. The eye was… very good. But that was not the point. "Erase it, Higurashi."

Kagome's cheeks turned bright red color as she nodded. "Yes, Sensei."

"And this time do the _problem_."

"Yes, Sensei."

* * *

**A/N**: Ok so in case you haven't noticed I've been on this total mini-writers block thingy on ALL my Inuyasha stories. Hence the short chapters. I wish I could get over it. And school's about to start too. (pouts). Oh and I would respond to your awesome reviews, but I heard from someone that you can get kicked off for doing that… how weird/ 


	8. Not that Kind of Girl

A/N: I know, I know, yell at me, pummel me, beat me, skin me. I'm late. I'm later than late. I'm like… I can't find a strong enough word to describe it. But believe it or not, I'm probably going to be writing at this pace for a while… in all my stories, this one and MMH included. Please forgive and feel free to abandon, I wouldn't stick with an author as crappy as me that takes this long to update. Quick… free yourselves while you still can.

Disclaimer: no recognizable material belongs to me. Just thought we should clear that up… _again_.

"No."

"Come on."

"No."

"Sango-"

"No."

"What could it hurt?"

"No."

"Sango, I _love _you…"

"_No_."

"But-!"

"NO! How many times to I have to say it! No, No, No, No, _No_!" She said, turning around and glaring at her stalker, who also happened to be one of her best friends. "I've already told you a thousand times, I'm _not_ marrying you, Kuranosuke!"

"But Sango, we've been friends since_ preschool_," the young man argued, trying his best to convince the woman of his dreams that the two of them were meant to be.

"And we're still in _high school_, Kuran." She said as she shot the perfect basket, calling by his nickname.

"So? What does _that _ matter?" Kuranosuke asked, taking her by the hand. She shook him off to catch the rebounding ball. "We're old enough."

"Maybe you are… but I'm not, and I don't-" She stopped herself with a sudden jerk, the movement almost messing up her lay-up. She was about to say "I don't love you" but then… she'd crush him. Kuranosuke may have been a love-sick idiot (the kind of guy she hated)… but what he said had been true: the two of them _had _been friends since preschool. "I don't really feel like marrying _anyone _right now." She finished. Kuranosuke's silence was frightening.

"But I love you." He said, his voice soft.

Sango felt the pressure growing in her chest, as she looked at her old friend's face. '_But I don't…_' she thought, a little sadly. The world would have been so much easier if she could only love Kuranosuke back… but…

"Kuranosuke, nice to see you… _again_."

Both Sango and Kuranosuke turned around to see a tall man standing behind them, his hair as black as coal, his eyes a smoky lavender color. He was strong, and dark, and gorgeous, and his eyes watched Kuranosuke steadily, as if to say, '_Why are you here…?_'

Kuranosuke, gentleman at heart, could tell when he wasn't wanted… most of the time anyway.

"Hoshima." He said, nodding at the man with a mask of politeness. "Haven't seen you in a while."

"Unlike Sango has, I'm sure."

Sango blushed. "Miroku… what are you doing here?"

The young man smiled, his attitude totally changing when he turned to talk to her. "Sango," he said casually, in that stupid voice that always made her lose herself. "How are you?"

"I'd rather you didn't ask." She said softly, looking at him with eyes that clearly said: '_Please… please just go away.' _She hated the way she was around him… she hated how strange it felt when they tried to talk… she wished she had never even met Hoshima, Miroku. He made her life so complicated.

Sango turned around, trying to ignore Miroku and shot a perfect basket, waiting for the ball to loop through the net and come back to her. At least she could always count on the ball to come back…

She could feel him standing behind her still. And Kuranosuke continued to stand with her as well, as if he were trying to keep her from being alone with him… and for once in her life she was grateful. She could always count of Kuranosuke too…

Finally, she felt Miroku leave, his steps slow and hesitant, as if half of him were unsure of what he were doing… as if half of him were lingering behind her, his breath still warm on the back of her neck. She half expected to feel his arms to come around her waist like they used to… and when they didn't she felt strangely relieved… and strangely cold.

She caught the ball for the fifth time and felt the loneliness, trying to get used to it, wishing that he had never come over, because then she wouldn't have felt so sad, or so cold.

"Sango… are you alright?" Kuranosuke asked, putting his hand on her shoulder, trying to be a friend. She shrugged it off because she wasn't ready to be touched yet. Not by Kuranosuke… not by anyone. Not after that little emotion hurricane she had just gone through with Miroku. Her ex.

"I'm fine…" She said slowly, glancing across the gym to where he was standing, leaning against the wall with his crowd of friends, his profile turned toward her. Quickly she turned her eyes away, and shot the ball, but right as she finished it out, his smoky lavender eyes clashed with hers, and for the first time in a long time, Sango Tijia missed her shot.

Rin was waiting outside Ms. Dubose's room, sighing with tiredness as she leaned against the wall and sunk down to the floor. '_Kittens… secrets… trust issues… man, how am I supposed to deal with all this drama_?'

The sound of long, slow steps filled her mind and as she recognized them, she let a small smile touch her face. She knew the sound of his stride. Only he could sound that way… so slow and so steady and so strong… _only_ him.

She opened her soft hazel eyes when she heard the steady rhythm stop, turning her head upwards, she saw the figure who stood in the bend of the hall, seeing her.

"Hi." Was all she said.

The man looked down at her, his face so strangely captivating. And finally she felt safe again. She felt so completely safe that it was as if she could never be in any kind of danger ever again… his face was all it took.

The end of the day was like salvation for Kagome. She had survived. Yes! She had a ton of homework to do, and she still hadn't found her English partner… even though she had spent most of her free period scanning the halls for him, but she _had _survived. You had to give her points for that. For some reason, though no one ever seemed to want to tell her where that Inuyasha-guy was. Sometimes she got funny looks, and the occasional "you're new, aren't you?" but she brushed them off. She didn't have time to be embarrassed. She wasn't going to fail this project.

When the glass doors opened, Kagome allowed the flow of bodies to pull her into the parking lot, all the while her eyes scanning faces and hair for flashes of gold or silver. She found none. Just when she thought that maybe she'd never find him again, and that meeting him had probably been just a dream in the first place, a voice behind her caught her attention. It sounded like a boy. Someone who she thought she knew…

"Look. He's up there again. You think he's gonna jump?"

"He'd fucking better not. My car's parked under him. I don't want freak guts on my hood."

Kagome turned, her lips parted in something like shock as she looked at the two boys behind her. They're necks were craned upward, staring at something near the sky. Instinctively she followed their gaze. Her grip tightened on her bag as she saw the boy's legs hanging over the edge of the roof. His long silver hair shinning in the sun. He was a spot of black and silver against the pale blue sky, his heavy combat boots swinging like weighted pendulums that were waiting to be dropped over the edge. Hanyouri, Inuyasha.

"It's him…" She said softly, making one of the boys turn and look at her. Catching her face and her figure, the boy lowered his sunglasses looking her up and down and took a step towards her, smiling.

"You think he'll actually do it?" He asked her, something akin to a grin spreading across his face. "We've all been waiting for it to happen. One day the guy's just going to lose it."

Kagome turned and looked at him, knowing that that he was trying to flirt in the ridiculously stupid and senseless way that only guys did. Too bad she wasn't interested. "No." She said, wondering what kind of idiot would ask her such a question. "I don't think he will." And with that she shoved her way back into the building, making her way through he current of the crowd, her mind thinking only about getting to the roof.

Inuyasha watched the crowd of students flow out of the double doors beneath him when the bell rang at 2:45. They looked like some sort of black ocean, all bunched up and just released from a dam, the way they poured out from the doors and spread across campus, gushing till they were everywhere, and his quiet world was broken. He hated it when they did that. The young man watched with vague interest as he took a drag from his cigarettes and flicked the ashes over the sea of black. They would be cool by the time they reached the people below him, but still he watched as the red specks floated down and turned to black.

Ash black. Just like her eyes had been that night… distant and falling gradually away from him and their world… sometimes he still wondered what had made her do it… why…

"Hey."

It was the first time he could ever remember jumping out of surprise. Turning around, a little stunned that someone was actually there, with him… it felt so strange… and the he saw her face. His whole body stilled, the cigarette smoldering in his hand as he stared. It was her face. Standing right here in front of him… '_Kikyo's…_'

Only it was different. She was smiling at him. Kikyo had never really smiled… and when she did it had seemed like the best thing on earth to him. And her eyes were different too. Unlike Kikyo, this girl's eyes were a startling shade of crystal blue. In all truths they struck him in his chest, startling him like he had been started by her smile… Eventually his scowl came back to his face as he inhaled the smoky toxic into his lungs. "Can I _help _you?" He asked, glaring.

Kagome bit at the corner of her bottom lip, and he could tell that she was nervous. He regretted it a little… regret… the feeling seemed to be overpowering him these days. "No." She said slowly, her eyes looking right at his. "Not really." She figured he had forgotten meeting her, when in reality he just pretended not to care.

He stared at her blankly and she moved towards him, filling him with the strangest sensation. Someone was coming near him. Actually, willingly coming near him. He didn't like the feeling. It freaked him out. He had gotten used to being alone. Really alone. And now there was a girl walking towards him, being nice, trying to have a conversation. Either she was incredibly brave… or she was really stupid.

'_Or…_' he thought, watching her as she stood beside him and looked at the expanse of blue sky. '_Maybe she doesn't care…_'

"It's beautiful up here." She seemed to say, absently, as if she didn't know he was there. She was talking to herself… he realized, lost. And he was alone again… and relieved. "Oh, um, look, we got assigned a project… in English. And, since I was the last one in, and you weren't there at all, we ended up being partners." She said, turning her attention back to him as she shuffled through her messenger bag. She pulled out a handful of stapled paper, holding it out to him with her hand, making him catch the faint traces of charcoal and pencil lead… she was an artist. "I got you an extra copy."

He stared blankly at her. And she could tell that he didn't even have a clue as to what she was talking about. "You showed me to the English class that you missed this morning… remember? Do you think we can meet sometime to work on this?"

'_No. Never…_'

To Kagome, he didn't say anything. He didn't even take the papers from her hand. He simply got up, ignoring her quietly as he took a drag from the cigarette, acting as if the papers she had offered him weren't even there, and he made his way to the exit of the roof, leaving her to standing there, alone.

But she wasn't the kind of girl, "Hey!" who allowed herself to be left behind. And she wasn't going to be the kind of girl to take a hint either. Even if that hint was something as strong as a punch in the face. How he would come to love that about her…

OoOoOoO

Inuyasha stopped when he heard the pounding of footsteps racing after him on the stairs. He frowned, slightly bewildered, almost not believing that the rhythmic echo he was hearing on the concrete walls was real. What was _wrong _with her? Was she _actually following _him? _Willingly_? Didn't she know _anything_? Couldn't she tell that he wanted to be _alone_? He was a little too shocked to be annoyed, otherwise he would have probably told her to fuck off right when she appeared on the staircase, a level to his right, breathless and panting from having to catch up.

"Where are you going?" She asked, a stray wisp of black hair that had fallen into her face moving upward with her breath.

His gaze got harder as he stared at her, moving the cigarette away from his lips. "Why do you care?" He asked, his voice quiet and dark and threatening, as if he were daring her to answer.

"I…" She paused, her mouth in a perfect shape and her eyes so lost that it was almost cute. _Almost_… "I can't fail this class." She said quietly, as if she were ashamed.

"Sure you can." He replied, flicking the cigg to make the cold ashes fall to the ground. His voice was much harder and blunt than hers. Her's sounded... _seemed_ human, he noticed, and his just sounded… cold. "Just don't _do_ anything. That's easy enough, isn't it?" Clearly, he was annoyed, and clearly, she didn't care.

"Well, at least… take these." She said, giving him the papers that were still in her hand. "I don't need two sets anyway so you might as well."

He was about to scowl at her and ask her what the hell her problem was, why the fuck should he give a damn, and _why _in the name of the _Gods _was she following him around like a lost puppy with no mother to cuddle with it. And then he noticed the look she had on her face. A gentle, determined, beautiful expression that was so full of life and happiness… so full of Kagome. And for a fraction of a second, he was caught off guard, admiring her. She really was beautiful… just like Kikyo had been beautiful. But this girl was different… somehow.

Without being able to stop himself, he reached out and took the papers, telling himself that it was just to get her to leave him alone, but knowing inside himself that it was something more. "Happy now?" he asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice as he sucked in smoke from his cigarette.

Her smile surprised him. He hadn't been expecting it.

"Thanks." She said, being completely sincere with him, "it means a lot to me."

After he recovered from seeing her smile so sweetly at him, Inuyasha rolled his eyes and blew the steady stream of gray smoke from the corner of his lips, being careful to avoid directing the smoke into her face, though he wasn't quite sure why. Wordlessly he left her, walking down the stairs with much heavier, louder footsteps than Kagome would ever make… heavier than she could understand.

OoOoOoO

Next time, on TSP:

"YOU'RE ENGLISH PARTNERS WITH _INUYASHA_!" – Rin

"These questions are so personal, how am I ever supposed to ask him these? How am I ever supposed to _answer_?" – Kagome

"You never leave me alone, do you?" – Sango

"I really wish I could." – Miroku

"Sometimes when things get hard, I just feel like the best thing I can do is run." – Koga

"I just wish I could forget." – Inuyasha

"I just don't want to be alone." – mystery person


	9. Part I: Nine O'Clock and All is

**A/N**: Wahh I've been gone for sooo long! eh heh. bashfully rubs the back of her head well, i really dont have too many excuses, except for that... yeah. OK! So, as you've all realized, the chapters of this story are pretty damn short, so, not wanting to break up that rhythm, i've broken up the promised qoutes that i've left out for the next chapter. Go back and read if you'd like. Oh! And also, let me know if this chapter is unclear or seems to be written in not so good of a fashion as the others were. i have no idea how i'm writing these days. Oh! And another thing! (haha yeah i know, i talk a lot) the bars inserted in the story indicate a switch in point of view, the other chapters dont have it and let me know if you don't like it, but i find it helpful!). And, the first three points of view are what each girl is diong at nine o'clock. Ok! Now im done! (promise) Love yas!

**Dislcaimer**: ...pouts. (and thats a "no, i don't own Inuyahsa" by the way)

* * *

At nine o'clock at night, Kagome was soaking herself lavender scented bubbles, her damp fingers placed over the rim of the tub, dripping water onto the floor. A large disk of light hung over her face, illuminating her skin and creating a halo of shine in the water.

She inhaled lavender, closing her eyes. She – was – exhausted. Ever since she was a little girl she loved taking bubble baths, damp hair clipped up in a messy bun. She moved her arm to rest on her kneecap, and listened to the water dripping out of the faucet.

When she let herself relax, her mind sunk back into what the day had left her with: a ridiculous English project and some new friends. And then there was Rin… the way her jaw had fallen open to scream:

"_You're English partners with **Inuyasha**_!" The stunned look. The alarmed hazel eyes that were the size of dinner plate. It would have been funny if she hadn't received a similar reaction from _all_ her classmates. That made it a little freaky. Even Sango had sort of done a double-take and looked at her as if to decipher whether or not she was being honest. So now it was just downright _weird_.

What was wrong with the guy anyway? Did he like, eat unborn children or something? She sank down lower into the bath, pouting as she thought.

She'd read the interview questions, and they had been kind of… intimate. Ranging from "what's your favorite television show, book, movie, etc." to "have you ever been in love," and "What's your deepest secret? Your worst fault? Your biggest mistake? The best thing that's ever happened to you?" She felt the light pink start staining her cheeks. The best thing that had ever happened to her? She didn't really have any answer to that… did that make her a bad interview partner? Would Inuyasha be mad?

Wait.

No.

This _was _Inuyasha…

He didn't really seem like the type to share either. She sighed again, shifting in the water, and started moving her fingertips gently up and down, one at a time, watching as the droplets fell and created tiny bullet holes in the bubbles.

She watched through half-lidded eyes as the ripples from the droplets that hit water spread like fingertips, reaching for something, and disappearing under the film of thick white froth.

* * *

She was having the nightmares again. And she didn't even know why. It had been six years ago. Six _years_, she thought, blinking back tears. You would have thought that by now she could have…

Rin lay in her bed, white hot fear zinging through her body so that she could barely move. Or was it ice cold? She turned over, her eyes wet as she realized she couldn't tell, and she couldn't stop herself from shaking. The red numbers of her alarm clock lasered themselves into her brain. It was nine o'clock, exactly six years later, and she still couldn't maker herself forget. Not the whole thing. She'd become very good at blocking out memories. But the feelings, and traces of figures moving in the dark, and the noises… the screams.

She rolled over and turned on the light, but somehow this was even worse. She didn't want to move.

But she had to.

Slowly she got up, every motion was full of something that should have been tension but wasn't anymore. She'd gotten so good at hiding fearfulness.

She was cold. Unthinkingly, she put on her school uniform, and a large sweatshirt over it. She didn't look into the mirror, because that would have been too much. But she picked up the sleek black phone and stood in the corner of her room, with both the walls pressed around her as she listened to the single ring pierce into her ear. And then there was an answering machine, the first noise of which she had memorized by heart, so she hung up after she'd heard the first intake of breath. If she left a message and it was received tomorrow it would be too late.

She bit her lip before she grabbed keys and started out the door. It was still early enough in the school year to be warm in Tokyo. And as she walked out into the humid smog, sky filled with gray, streets still filled with crowds of people, she felt a little safer. She liked people, and she liked the feeling of the constant moving all around her. The stillness was what frightened her most, the stillness… and mostly, silence.

She waited at the bus stop for six minutes, alone and hating it, standing up instead of sitting alone on the empty bench, and then got on. During the twenty minute ride, she seated herself next to an old man, in a tattered coat with smears of something on his face. He had fallen asleep in his seat, and probably missed his stop hours ago. She didn't know him, and there were plenty of empty seats around, but….

She sat rigidly, letting the greens, reds, and yellow lights flash over her face through the window, innocent hazel eyes scanning the black webbing of the floor beneath her. And all the while her heart was pounding hard inside her chest and she felt like throwing up. When the bus stop pulled up to a creaky stop in front of the school, with the sound of compressed air being released and a rusty break stop being pulled, she got off.

* * *

Sango had just finished played video games with her brother when the phone went off in her room. She'd kicked his ass of course – her brother's that was – in a final round of 23 to 6.

"Awww, _Sis_!" Kohaku had complained, sitting back on his hands. "You _never_ go easy on me!" But he was laughing as he said it, so she'd known that she could just stick out her tongue and tickle him to make him forgive her.

Kohaku was an amazing boy. Unlike most of her little cousins, he was always smiling and laughing, never cried or complained. He was already thirteen, and growing like a weed in the summer sun, but in so many ways he was still just a child. And then, in so many ways, he was almost older than she. Usually, she was reminded of this during their family reunions. The Tijia's had a reputation for having a huge, boisterous family, full of rowdy people who got drunk a little too easily and started a few too many fights together over the dinner table or in bars. But they loved each other dearly. And of their generation, she and Kohaku were the oldest. That meant they were in charge of baby-sitting the rat-pack of kids that came when their 32 or more relatives piled through the door for Christmas and Thanks Giving or Memorial Day.

Kohaku had gotten up to help their mother with the dishes when the phone rang in the hall. "I'll get it!" Sango said, putting down the wet rag that she'd been using to wipe down the table and running into the other room.

She picked it up, tucking back a strand of hair. "Moshi moshi."

And then there was silence... "Hi."

She felt her stomach dry up until it burned and she stood there, on the phone. She didn't say anything, and neither did he. She'd known it was him from the minute she'd put the phone to her ear and heard nothing.

"You have to stop doing this." She said at last.

"When?" He asked, after a what seemed like a year of peaceful silence stretched between them.

"Soon." She replied. "Now. If my mother or father ever hears about you still calling me-"

"They knew about me?" Miroku asked, and she could see the slow smile on his face, the way his smoky lavender eyes must have crinkled, like they always did when he smiled.

She felt the pain lance through her entire body and inhaled hard. "Yeah." She said, her pitch changing as she refused to let the sting in her eyes blossom into tears. "They did." I _was an _actual _girlfriend to you. _

And with that she put the phone down on its base, ending conversation. She stood for a long time, taking control, staring at the varnish on the table until she was ready to look up into the mirror. Just as she'd tried, her reflection didn't show any of the turmoil that she felt inside. She had wanted it like that, but now, if anything, the sight of it only upset her more.

When the phone rang again, only a second later, she deftly hit the "mute" button so that the rest of her family couldn't hear, and waited until it was safe again to turn the ring back on.

He wouldn't call again.

With that she turned around and finished wiping down the table and went back into the kitchen where she found Kohaku rinsing the last of the dishes on his own, their mother having retreated for bed.

When her footsteps sounded on the tile, her little brother turned around, and she could tell from the look on his gently freckled face that he knew. She smiled at him a little and took the dishes from his hands, drying them and setting them in their cabinets as he handed them too her.

And then he said, quietly, "Are you ever going to tell mom and dad about him?"

She looked down at the counter for a moment, and then took the slick white glass from her brother's hands. "No." She said, looking at her perfectly calm, almost emotionless expression, warped in the wet reflection. "They never needed to know."

* * *

When the minute hand finally fell to six, and it was 10:30 at night, she came through the door, wordlessly. There was only the gentle, halting tap of her shoe on the floor. He looked up from his work. And there she was, standing in the doorway, the lone, dusty light from his desk hitting her face in just the right way. She bit her lip nervously. And he continued to just look at her, expressionless.

"I know you have a lot of work." She said, guilty, looking at the floor. "I called your phone… but you didn't-"

"I turned it off." _For a reason _his tone implied.

"I know." She said, walking slowly over to him. She looked curiously over his shoulder. "What are you doing?"

"Grading." He answered bluntly. "One of your friends is in my class."

"I know. She told me about that project you assigned." She smiled, and he stared at her, his hard golden eyes a growing slightly sharper as he perceived something very wrong in hers.

"Rin."

Her lips parted and she looked at him, directly, suddenly pained. He knew something was wrong. "I-" She didn't want to have to explain. Not to him. Not to anybody. "I just don't want… to be alone." She said, her voice sounding strange. "Not tonight." She looked up at him, and saw him staring at her, his gaze piercing into her. She swallowed slightly, thinking that of course he'd think she was being stupid, and kick her out.

Of course.

That was why she had smiled so broadly when he turned back to his papers and started grading them again. Permission granted.

She put down her books, and sat up on the desk beside the lamp, its heat on her bare thighs. "…Hey, you're kind of harsh on them, aren't you?" She asked as she watched him viciously mark down on his student's essays.

His eyes moved slowly to cast her a sideways look.

She smiled at him. "I'll be quiet now." She said, and pulled her knees up to her chest while his pen continued across the page. And finally inside her, her blood started to slow down, and the white-hot fear that had been eating up her everything lulled. She took his left hand in hers and linked their fingers gingerly. He let her. And it was okay.

* * *

**A/N**: sighs well, it feels like crap. but at least, i figure, i owe you guys at least a posting. let me know if you hate it and i'll take it down and make it better determined I will! And, oh, so, i guess i kinda gave it away huh? Rin's secret. A lot of you knew already, but some of you don't. if you still have no clue as to what's going on then... (stare) ill stare at you for the rest of the chapter... actually nah, if you want you can ask me in your review and i'll reply with the answer. Let me know if you think that part is not so well done either, i'm a bit lost when it comes to Sesshomaru.

Right! Well, thank you guys for all your support! Sorry for the wait... wanna leave me a review?? please?


	10. Pt II: At Noon We Missed Each Other

**A/N**: Hah. Now admit it: how many of you _actually_ thought I'd follow up and update on this? Hmmm? Okay well anyway, the point is I've updated. I wanted to make this chapter longer, but I'm exhausted. In fact, I haven't even proof read it yet.

Hmmm. Oh, I'll re-read it later. Since its almost like two in the morning and late night inspiration seems to work better for this story anyway.

Anyway, it might get edited later, but it will stay basically the same.

Hope you like it.

**Disclaimer: No recognizable material belongs to me.

* * *

**

"I'm tired." Kagome announced with a yawn, opening the door and climbing out of her car.

"Are you?" Sango asked weakly, fighting the nausea as she pulled herself to a shaky stand. She paused briefly to remove her fingernails from the leather upholstery she had dug them into during the ride.

"I wonder why Rin didn't want to take a ride with us this morning." Kagome said curiously, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Yeah, I wonder." Sango said darkly, silently cursing the other girl for taking the bus to school that morning and leaving her alone to ride with Kagome. Why she had taken the bus though she had no idea…"Hey, Kagome."

"Yeah?"

"Tomorrow, why don't I drive?"

Kagome shot Sango a strange look.

Oh no.

She wrinkled her nose the way she always did when she was confused.

'_Here it comes_…' Sango chanted in her head.

"Why?" Kagome asked.

"Err… um. Well… I…" Sango put her fingers in her hair, and looked at the ground. "How do I…?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Kagome caught a flash of silver. She turned around jerkily and spotted her English partner walking through the backdoors of the high school, surrounded by his usual cloud of smoke. "Oh, actually Sango, do you mind if I meet you during lunch? There's something I have to take care of."

"Uh… sure?"

"Thanks! See you!"

"Yeah…" Sango said, looking at her watch. They had 10 minutes until they needed to get to class. She looked again and watched, baffled as Kagome scampered away and entered the school through the back entrance.

"What was that?" She asked herself before entering through the doors of the school.

A burst of laughter caused her to turn her head to the right, and she stiffened, if only for a second, when she spotted Miroku surrounded by his usual crowd of friends, laughing as they hung casually in the hall. They were surrounded by their usual gang of pretty girls, the ringleader of whom seemed to be throwing herself at Miroku…

"Hey, Sango." A voice to her left called to her.

"Kuranosuke?"

"Headed towards your locker?" he asked, smiling brightly when he got to her.

"Yeah." Sango said and started to walk with him out of habit.

"Did you get the math last night?"

Sango made a face. "Not really…"

He smiled at her and put his arm around her shoulders. "Good." He answered. "Me neither."

**OoOoOoOoO**

"Hey! Wait up!"

The lank, chain-clad figure jerked to a stop in the too-white hall, cigarette half-way to his lips. He did - not - believe it.

The person behind him must have been confused. Very, very, very, _deeply_ confused. That was the only explanation.

"Hi." The breathy voice came again, this time from his elbow. He stared incredulously at the floor. There was no way he was actually recognizing this voice right now. No way.

"How are you?"

He shut his eyes. '_Jesus. How dense **is** she_?' He demanded to no one in particular, finally turning to look at her face.

She stared at him.

Yup. This was her.

"I said 'how are you'." She repeated.

How _was_ he? Well, he wanted to strangle her for starters. Shock was the only thing stopping him at the moment. Really. As soon as the shock wore off she'd be dead. Let her try to follow him around like a mother-less puppy _then_.

But the shock did ware off. And, to his greatly conflicted frustration, nothing happened…

**OoOoOoOoO**

Kagome found herself stuck in the same awkward stare-down she been engaged in the first time she'd "spoken" with Inuyasha. "I said 'how are you'." She repeated nervously. Inuyasha continued to stare.

Was it her hair? Was she wearing something offensive? She glanced down at her dark blue, boat-neck shirt. It hadn't been imprinted with a swastika or anything since the last time she'd looked at it, so… what was the deal?

"Are you okay?" She reached out him.

Her fingertips had barely skimmed the shape of his bare-skinned arm before he was miles away from her. Or, it seemed like miles at least. All he had really done was jerk away from her sharply once their skin had made contact. She stared pulled her hand back, slightly hurt, while his golden eyes smoldered a thousand warnings. "Sorry." She said, taking a step back herself. Suddenly, she regretted even following after him in the first place.

**OoOoOoOoO**

The sharpened look of hurt that filtered through her pretty blue eyes was the only thing that stopped him from roughly shoving her backwards and striding away from her down the hall to escape.

"Sorry." She said, her voice so different from the sugar-coated ray of sunshine it always seemed to be whenever she'd approached him before. He was still amazed that she'd tried to touch him. It had been so long since anybody had… Though they'd barely made contact, the places where her fingertips had skimmed him seemed to burn uncomfortably. He stopped himself from rubbing his other hand over them. The girl took a step away from him defensively and, despite himself, he felt suddenly guilty. So he didn't shove her. Instead, he took a deep drag from the end of his cigarette and let himself relax. "What do you want?" he asked, his voice not coming out nearly close to the tone he had wanted it to.

Still, it seemed to show her that he was at least a little sorry. She let her guard down slightly. "I just wanted to ask how you got along with the questions yesterday."

She thought he'd _read _the questions? He didn't even know where he'd left them…

He gave her a look that clearly implied: no, he definitely had _not_ read over the questions last night.

"Oh." She said. So much for this being a walk in the park. "Well, that's okay."

They lapsed into silence.

"Walk to class with me?" She said.

_What_? Inuyasha thought to himself, so confused and frustrated that for a moment he wondered if this whole thing was all some sort of _very _demented and fucked up alternate-version of reality.

"C'mon, we can go over the questions there." She said, and started down the hall.

He watched her start to walk away. Five steps without him and she turned around to find him still rooted to the same spot. "Aren't you coming?" She asked.

He continued to look at her as if she had sprouted extra heads from the palms of her hands before finally turning around and walking the other way. "I'm not going to class." He answered her.

"What? But you cut yesterday's class too! Won't you get into trouble?"

"I know the teacher." Inuyasha said over his shoulder. "And he won't give a damn." _'He's probably happier that I'm _not_ there…_'

Kagome stared after him bewildered, before the bell ringing in her head made her realize that she was about to be late for her English class. _Again_. Sensei Sesshomaru's icy gold eyes cut into her head and had her running for room 201. Or… was it 203?

_Cra-a-a-p!_

**OoOoOoOoO**

"Rin!" Sango pressed the cell phone against her ear as she tried to undo the cheap Wallmart padlock that sealed everybody – including herself – away from her belongings. "What the heck was up with your disappearing stunt this morning?" She asked as she twisted the jammed spiral around 3 and then doubled back to 42.

"_Sorry_." Rin's voice sun into her ear. "_How was your morning_?"

"Oh it was fine, except for the fact that we almost crashed into a 92 year old woman on the way!"

Rin giggled through the phone.

"What are you laughing at?" Sango asked, finally yanking the lock open.

"_Sorry_." Rin managed through a fit of giggles. "_It's just- it seems so_ _**funny** once I'm not in the car anymore_."

"Yeah well, laugh now 'cause you're never going to do that to me again!" Sango said, pulling out a massive pile of books.

"_Yes ma'am_!" Rin answered, still giggling.

"Alright, I've got class in a minute. See you in P.E.?"

"_Yeah._" Rin answered, voice bubbling.

"Will you stop laughing?" Sango smiled.

"_Uh-huh_!" She could practically see the younger girl's grin. "_See 'ya_!"

"See ya." Sango flipped her phone shut and slipped it into her bag, pulling a big green book out of the moshpit of texts. She hadn't meant to cause an avalanche of textbooks. "Ah!" She threw her hands into the locker to try to hold it back, but they ended up just spilling over her arms, scraping at her knuckles and battering her hands. When the chaos finally lulled, she was standing in a pile of papers and plastic. People in the hallway snickered as the passed and Sango shot them hard looks. _Great_. She knelt down, ignoring her reddened knuckles and started stacking hurriedly, not wanting to be late.

She hesitated when someone else's hand reached down and picked up her chemistry book, offering it to her.

She looked up and felt herself grow heavy when she met Miroku's dark violet eyes. He smiled at her as he offered her the book. She took it from him curtly and resumed her work, not looking at him.

"Sango."

"Don't talk to me." She answered. She suddenly felt his hand close over her shoulder and she yanked away so hard that she almost fell over. "And _don't_ touch me."

He stared at her and she glared back, unyielding. She was not going to give into him. Not again.

"Look, I just want to talk to you." Miroku confessed as she stood, the heavy pile of books in her hand. "Let me get that for you." He added absently, reaching for the locker door.

"I can do it." She said, her cutting tone stopping him mid-reach. His hand fell back to his side as she moved to nudge the door aside. She cursed when the books started to fall over again. Miroku caught them deftly with his perfect reflexes, and she almost wished that he had just let them fall.

"Thanks." She said automatically before she could stop herself.

"Welcome."

She hated how easily they fell back into that – the way they used to be. When talking came easy, along with their laughter and smiles and… she shook it out of her head. She shouldn't have ever gone out with Miroku Hoshima, _ever_. She pushed the stack of books into her locker and slammed it shut, slinging her bag over her shoulder. "I don't want to talk to you." She said. _Lie._ And at the same time not…

"Why?" Miroku challenged, stepping in front of her, blocking her path. She made the mistake of catching his eyes, that too familiar shade of blue and lavender, with what was seemingly the perfect amount of sensitivity lurking inside them. She steeled herself. How many other girls had been caught under that dark violet sway?

"Because I have nothing left to say to you." She ground out and moved around him.

"Sango." Miroku turned, and his hand shot out like lightning to close over her shoulder before she got away. She stopped, wavering. She was so tired of this… "Please." He said. The word was simple, straightforward and short. It was not desperate or pleading, but firm and resilient - everything that she never was when it came to him.

"You never leave me alone, do you?" She asked, meaning to make her voice like venom, and hating it when she sounded wounded instead.

His hand squeezed gently from behind her and she shut her eyes tight so he couldn't see, even though her back was still to him. "I really wish I could." He answered.

She pulled away from him after a moment, leaving him alone in the middle of the busy hall.

By the time she entered the classroom her smile was back, and it was like nothing had ever happened. She worked resiliently through the assignments without any signs of being troubled. She never told anyone that the entire time she could have sworn she still felt his fingers resting on the bare skin of her collarbone. It seemed like lately, the only thing she found herself doing was trying to force him out of her mind.

'_I broke up with him for a reason,_' She thought to herself, firmly. '_And I'm not going to forgive him for it… I **won't**._'

**OoOoOoOoO**

At 12:45, Kagome broke out from the concrete and glass into the fresh air that surrounded the track field. She'd left a note on Inuyasha's locker asking him to meet her there so that they could use her free period to start work on their project, ignoring the suspiciously claw-shaped markings on the door. Whether or not he had a free during fifth period didn't trouble her – she had been pretty sure the guy didn't even _attend_ classes at all when she found him to be missing from both his history and geometry classes that morning along with him blowing off English for the second day in a row. A few questions to a couple bewildered students confirmed her suspicions.

"_Hanyouri? Dude, that psycho doesn't even **go** to classes. Everybody_ _knows that. Are you like retarded or something?"_

She pushed out the memory and sat down on the grass while the varsity track team rounded the far corner. She thoughtfully pulled out her sketchbook and started working. She became so engrossed in her latest piece that she didn't even hear Koga calling out to her.

"-gome! … _Kagome_!"

She jumped and looked up, her eyes clashing with said person's blue eyes. "Koga." She jumped up and he leaned causally against the rail of the track, sweat beading on his arms and face.

"Come to watch me and my team practice?" he gave her a grin.

"You're on varsity?" Kagome asked, impressed.

Koga shrugged, but the smirk on his face gave it all away. She smiled. "That's' really good. How did you get into it?"

For a moment, her friend's eyes grew distant. Then he came back into focus and shrugged. "It's not actually a reason I'm that proud of." He confessed. "Sometimes when things get hard, I feel like the best thing I can do is run."

Kagome frowned, taken aback by the answer that she didn't really understand. "Oh."

He smiled when he saw her confusion. "Forget it," he said, "Why _are _you out here?"

"I'm supposed to be meeting someone." She answered. "This guy called Inu-"

"Koga! What do you think you're _doing_?"

**OoOoOoOoO**

Inuyasha watched as the track coach chewed Koga's ass out for stopping to talk to a girl on the sidelines.

Kagome's note was crumpled up in his hand. He still couldn't quite understand why she didn't realize that she wasn't _supposed_ to be talking to him. Surely, _someone_ had filled her in by now on the things that everybody had said that he'd done… on everything that had _happened._

He continued to watch from a distance as the dark-haired guy waved gave a loose, two-fingered wave to Kagome as he resumed his laps and she sat back down on the grass to resume her sketching.

He had come only because he'd wanted to fill her in – tell her to leave him alone. Or at least, that's what he'd told himself. He'd had nothing better to do after all… right?

A muscle in his jaw ticked. _'Whatever._' He turned around and started to walk back to the building. It had been stupid to come out here in the first place. Someone would tell Kagome sooner or later what kind of person he was, and that he didn't exactly count as someone "cool" to hang out with. She would grow afraid, just like the rest of them, and melt into the crowd and things would return to normal.

He didn't really want to intervene and he didn't know what he would say to her anyway even if he did go down and talk to her. Then why, he wondered to himself, had he even bothered to come out her in the first place?

* * *

**A/N**: Like I said, I wanted to make this chapter longer. It would have moved to Rin's POV, but I'm really, really tired. Okay. So, quotes for the next chapter.

"You're here?" – Miroku.

"Just to talk. Nothing else." – Sango.

"I'm glad." – Miroku.

(We will finally figure out why the hell these two broke up! …Or, at least, we'll get further along into the explanation at least:) it will be totally worth it).

"Listen, I don't know how the heck you managed to miss this memo – but you're supposed to stay the hell away from me. _Everybody _stays away from me! Got that?" – Inuyasha.

"I know..." – Kagome. "But I-"

And others…

Review inspire me to update. And to write actually… oh well. Here's for going back to school! (raises glass of champagne) Wait… (chucks it at the window) I forgot, I hate school.


End file.
